JOHN PRESCOTT sought to assert his authority at the start of three weeks in charge of the country yesterday by putting David Blunkett in his place.

The Deputy Prime Minister ordered Downing Street press officers to stamp on suggestions by Mr Blunkett that he was helping Mr Prescott with “necessary decisions” while Tony Blair was on holiday.

Mr Prescott found time yesterday to take a family of tourists on a proprietorial tour of Downing Street after spotting them peering through the gates.

He had also called a top-level security meeting at No 10 — to which the Work and Pensions Secretary was not invited — and ensured that photographers were tipped off about his arrival time.

Downing Street was so keen to play down Mr Blunkett’s role in running the ship of state that its spokeswoman denied the Work and Pensions Secretary had attended any meetings of Cobra, the domestic security committee chaired by Mr Blair.Mr Blunkett’s office said that he did attend the Cobra meeting on July 7 after the London bombings. It was unclear whether he was invited.

Speaking on the BBC on Sunday, Mr Blunkett said: “I am working with John Prescott on covering a whole range of issues while other good colleagues are taking a break and then I hope to take one myself. Hazel Blears substitutes for the Home Secretary. She is his deputy and she is doing extremely well. I obviously have the experience and the knowledge and I help out in terms of having to take, with John Prescott, the necessary decisions in the next couple of weeks.”

But a Downing Street spokeswoman told reporters: “David Blunkett is the Work and Pensions Secretary. The Deputy Prime Minister is in charge while the Prime Minister is on holiday.” She said that Mr Blunkett had not been among five Cabinet colleagues, including Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, and Ian McCartney, the Labour Party chairman, consulted by Mr Prescott over the weekend.

Asked if Mr Blunkett had attended Cobra meetings, she said “no”. Mr Prescott’s office said he would be based in London and chair meetings of Cobra if necessary. If he could not attend No 10, he would arrange a conference call.

A spokesman for Mr Blunkett said that his words had been “wrongly interpreted”.

In Downing Street, Pinakin and Premila Patel from Harrow were peering through the black gates of Downing Street with their three daughters when Mr Patel spotted Mr Prescott and told his children: “That’s the man who is looking after the country while Tony Blair is away.”

Mr Prescott overheard the IT consultant and came over. “Where are you from? Would you like to see the Cabinet Room?” he asked.

Mr Patel, 38, said: “I thought he was joking but he took us back to Downing Street. That is the most surprising thing — that he had the time to show us round. He took us to the different rooms. In the Cabinet Room, he said, ‘This is where we make all the decisions — we just came out of a meeting just now’. He showed us the dining rooms, the place where the press get briefed by Tony Blair, the gardens and the staircase with all the portraits of Prime Ministers. It was fantastic.

“Everybody in No 10 looked quite surprised as he kept opening the doors for us. He even had the guys close the front door so we could get a photo there with him,” he said.

SUMMER'S HERE AND PRESCOTT'S IN CHARGE

1997 So-called Awful August as Mr Prescott vied for the limelight with Peter Mandelson, the Minister without Portfolio, during Tony Blair’s first prime ministerial holiday. The pair clashed over the Millennium Dome and did nothing to defuse a row between the MoD and the Treasury over plans for the Royal Yacht Britannia

1998 Another spat between Mr Prescott and Mr Mandelson, now Trade and Industry Secretary, this time over British Airways. Mr Mandelson was expected to give the go-ahead for BA to sell off hundreds of take-off and landing slots at Heathrow and Gatwick. Mr Prescott intervened to announce that the slots belonged to the nation and were not for BA to sell

1999 Mr Prescott’s first day in charge attracted derision as he donned a lifejacket to skipper a lifeboat on the Thames. Only qualified coxswains are supposed to pilot a lifeboat. The DPM ungenerously welcomed the new Lib Dem leader by dismissing Charles Kennedy’s pledge to become the party of the poor as “rubbish” and “rhetoric”

2000 Downing Street made it clear, as Mr Prescott took over, that all important decisions would still be made by Mr Blair even though he was on holiday. Mr Prescott was accused of recycling old announcements

2001 A very low-profile summer for Mr Prescott but officials denied he had been ordered to keep his head down, even though he had very few public engagements

2002 Mr Prescott flew to Johannesburg to represent Britain at the Earth Summit, where the delegation was criticised for having a fleet of Mercedes cars

2003 Mr Prescott showed his caring side by talking about being reunited with his wife Pauline’s long-lost son, Paul — a foxhunting Conservative

2004 A more sure-footed performance from Mr Prescott at the National Whitewater Centre in Bala, Gwynedd. He leapt to the aid of a capsized canoeist and pulled him out of the water with the help of “one of my Special Branch guys”

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