Tony Blair claims that he was a driving force behind independence of the Bank of England from the 1980s, challenging the conventional wisdom that the idea was solely Gordon Brown’s.

In an interview with David Aaronovitch, of The Times, for a three-part BBC documentary, the former Prime Minister said that he decided before he reached No 10 to make the change, although he did not claim that he had thought of it before Mr Brown.

In unedited extracts of the BBC interview, which are not being broadcast but have been seen by The Times, Mr Blair said that he “always thought it was the right thing to do”.

The announcement by Mr Brown the Tuesday after Labour won power in 1997 has always been credited to him, and a pamphlet written in 1992 by Ed Balls, soon to become his economic adviser, has been seen as the main inspiration behind the decision.

Blairites have often privately challenged the view that it was a Brown-Balls decision, even though they have accepted that it was Mr Brown as Shadow Chancellor who prepared the ground and who later put the change into effect.

Mr Blair said in the interview: “I remember having discussions with Tory ministers when I was a Shadow Treasury spokesman, saying, ‘You know, the obvious thing is to go for Bank of England independence’.” Mr Blair said that he used to talk to people such as Gavyn Davies, the economist and former chairman of the BBC, about the economics of it. They told him that they thought it was the right decision.

“And so I thought it was the right thing to do. Obviously, Gordon was completely up for that as well so there was no difficulty between us.”

Asked who mentioned it to the other first, Mr Blair replied: “It was part of the discussion very early on that I had with him.”

In the extract of the interview that appears in tomorrow night’s programme, Mr Blair was asked why he and Mr Brown had not consulted the Cabinet. “If Gordon had been against it, that would have been a different matter, but he wasn’t. He was absolutely for it. Myself and the Chancellor were absolutely on all fours together.”

A source close to Mr Brown pointed out that many politicians, including Tory Chancellors, had since revealed that they favoured bank independence when in office, but could not put it into effect. Sources close to Mr Blair and Mr Brown said that the two discussed the issue with aides in 1995. On election day they decided to announce the move within days. The day after the election they met again, with aides and officials. It was decided then not to consult the Cabinet.

Sources close to Mr Blair denied that he was claiming credit for the decision. One said: “They agreed the policy before the election and afterwards and it was for Gordon to announce.”

I decided on it

Now firstly could you just take us through how the Bank of England decision was made?

Blair: This has been something that I’d really decided on and obviously we, Gordon and I, talked about it very closely together going back I guess probably a couple of years maybe even more actually . . . and I thought, I’d always thought it was the right thing to do, I mean I remember having discussions actually with I think Tory ministers you know when I was a Shadow Treasury spokesman back in the 1980s saying you know the obvious thing is to go for Bank of England independence because . . .

How did the idea work its way through into the Labour Party, how did you get it taken on?

Blair: Well I remember because I used to meet groups of people to talk about the economics of it, Gavin Davies and people like that who used to tell me that they thought it was obviously the right thing to do. And so I was always very you know I thought it was, it was the right thing to do . . . I mean obviously you know Gordon was completely up for that as well so there was no difficulty between us over the decision.

You don’t remember who mentioned it to who first?

Blair: I mean I don’t but it was part of the discussion very early on that I had with him and I mean there was never a difficulty really about it

Source: The Blair Years, unedited extracts

Times Recommends

• Blair: My Years*
• Are we being too mean on the Blairs?
• Tony’s career in property