TONY BLAIR heaped praise on Gordon Brown yesterday as he tried to quell an outbreak of Labour infighting over the Chancellor’s perceived reduced role in the election campaign.

Although he could not guarantee that Mr Brown would retain his job if Labour wins the next election, the Prime Minister emphasised their “unity of purpose”, despite the clash of their main media appearances of the week.

Mr Blair grew exasperated at expressing his admiration for Mr Brown under sustained questioning provoked by the timing of his monthly press conference to coincide exactly with the Chancellor’s big speech on Africa.

Television viewers on some channels saw a split screen with images of Mr Brown speaking in Edinburgh, although the focus and the sound came from Mr Blair, whose appearance had been arranged just 24 hours earlier.

Downing Street hotly denied that this was a deliberate attempt to overshadow Mr Brown after several weeks of hostile press stories from supporters of the two men.

But almost as damagingly, a lack of co-ordination between No 10 and the Treasury over timing indicates just how far relations have broken down.

Downing Street sought to put a positive light on the situation. Rather than evidence that Mr Brown was being put in his place, it was evidence of “government in full throttle”, a spokesman said.

But yesterday’s split-screen display seemed to demonstrate for some how the Labour Government is divided into two interdependent but increasingly distinct camps.

The Prime Minister knows that Mr Brown, his co-architect of new Labour, his former friend and now his rival, does not want to wreck the prospect of a third successive election victory.

At the same time, Mr Brown knows that the Prime Minister cannot afford to split the Government and the party by moving him from the post of Chancellor after the election.

It is this wary but mutual understanding that may sustain their tattered relationship long enough at least to secure that third Labour term.

In his press conference yesterday Mr Blair acknowledged that he was in a partnership with Mr Brown. “We will carry on working together in the way that we did in the last two elections. It has been extremely successful for the country and I have no doubt at all it will carry on being extremely successful for the country.”

The Prime Minister emphasised that the next election would be “a tough fight”. He said: “I don’t take, as I think some people do, our re-election for granted. It is absolutely essential that people believe they getting a united policy front from the Government.”

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