IT MAY have been a collective lack of sleep or perhaps a symptom of the leader’s waning power, but Tony Blair’s apparently smooth post-election reshuffle turned out to be a behind-the-scenes “botch job”.

Senior Whitehall sources revealed last night that the prime minister had to tear up his carefully crafted cabinet team after ministers grumpily intervened on Friday.

Returning from election counts that had stretched into the early hours, the ministers were not all happy with the roles on offer. An angry intervention by John Prescott and a wrangle over a planned move for Ruth Kelly to the Treasury forced Blair into a hasty rethink.

And there was confusion last night over the role of Gordon Brown. Downing Street sources claimed he had been fully consulted on the reshuffle, but the chancellor’s allies said his involvement had been limited to Treasury appointments.

Blair had planned to make Alan Milburn the new “minister for yobs” but was blown off course when Labour’s election co-ordinator announced in the early hours of Friday that he was quitting the cabinet.

Then Blair was intent on giving the job — official title communities and local government minister — to David Blunkett but it is claimed that Prescott blocked the move, which involves taking some of the deputy prime minister’s functions.

The job would have been perfect for Blunkett, a key Blair ally, because it largely involves dealing with “respect” issues that the prime minister talked about on Friday: anti-social behaviour, urban regeneration and yob culture, all issues that Blunkett championed when he was home secretary.

There is history behind the tension between the two Labour heavyweights. Prescott was angered by Blunkett’s comment in a biography that the deputy prime minister hated his nickname “Two Jags”. Prescott hastened Blunkett’s departure at Christmas when he said he had breached the ministerial code of conduct.

Having defended his patch on Friday, Prescott left Blair with a headache. “Much of the day was taken up with having to find a significant job for Blunkett which he would be happy with,” said one source.

Eventually Blair decided to move Blunkett to the Department for Work and Pensions, a job he had earmarked for Patricia Hewitt. Blair’s original plan had been to do a job swap between Hewitt, the trade and industry secretary, and Alan Johnson, the work and pensions minister.

This was now impossible so Johnson was made secretary of state at the rebranded DTI, now called the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry. Virtually the only move Blair stuck to was switching John Reid from health to the Ministry of Defence. Hewitt was hastily dispatched to health.

There was further dithering over the post of chief secretary to the Treasury, made available by the departure of Paul Boateng. Blair’s first choice was Ruth Kelly, which would have meant moving her from education secretary after just six months in the job.

But Blair changed his mind. Senior Whitehall sources claim she protested at what would have been a demotion. However, Kelly’s aides maintained last night that she had no contact with Blair on Friday.

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