Shrugging off injuries sustained during the week, Tony Blair trotted out to appear yesterday lunchtime on Football Focus, the long running BBC1 programme. The player- manager of New Labour FC was doing his “man of the people” act by fielding football questions from viewers.

Among the more probing inquiries e-mailed in were: does Cherie stop you watching football when she’s at home? Can you pass some sort of legislation to relegate Chelsea? And if you had to pick a five-aside football team from the cabinet, who would be in it? That last shot was on target, for the number of star players that Blair can rely on in cabinet has been steadily diminishing. Charles Clarke? He’s no David Beckham. John Reid? More Vinnie Jones than Wayne Rooney. Ruth Kelly? Like Michael Owen, youthful promise has not delivered all that was hoped.

Blair once likened his job to being a football manager — and his team is looking ragged. Although he put on a brave face through the programme, the prime minister admits that he is facing tough times.

Last week David Blunkett was given a second red card and was forced to resign as work and pensions secretary, and the government scraped through a rebellion in the House of Commons by just one vote. This weekend many backbenchers and even ministers are openly questioning the impact of a chaotic week on Blair’s authority, judging by a survey of MPs by The Sunday Times.

“I’m afraid it has damaged him,” said John Smith, Labour MP for Vale of Glamorgan. “I speak as, until quite recently, an extremely loyal backbencher. In fact I won ‘sniveller of the year’ one year, according to a newspaper.

“When somebody like myself has come to the end of his tether, there is something seriously wrong.”

Tomorrow evening Blair will face mutinous Labour MPs in a bid to persuade them to back his plans for tougher powers to deal with terrorism. It is likely to be his most difficult meeting since the Iraq war.

Defying warnings from his chief whip that he risks defeat, Blair has been insisting that he will stick to his plan to allow the police to hold suspects for 90 days without charge. The current limit is 14 days. Rebels and opposition MPs have mooted a compromise of 28 days, far short of what Blair wants.

If the prime minister refuses to back down, the vote on the bill on Wednesday could effectively turn into a motion of confidence in him. But if he compromises, his enemies will say it confirms that his power is waning.

MORE MPs are lining up to confront him over reforms to education. In the survey of Labour backbenchers, 41 said they were either opposed to or doubtful about Blair’s desire to free schools from local authority control. That is sufficient to overturn the government’s majority. Others are aghast at Blair’s ideas for cutting the cost of incapacity benefit.

Amid the fallout and uncertainty Gordon Brown, the chancellor, was notable for his absence. Brown disappeared off to Leeds and then to Hull on a provincial tour partly aimed at bolstering his own claim to the top job. On Friday night he addressed the annual constituency dinner of Alan Johnson, the trade and industry secretary, at a banqueting suite in Hull’s new £46m sports stadium.

“We could be looking at the next Labour prime minister and his number two,” said one senior local party figure. Brown was presented with a Hull City football club shirt emblazoned on the back with “Brown No 1”.

Meanwhile, lot number four in the evening’s auction was a copy of the book Tony Blair — In His Own Words. “That’s one for the car boot sale,” chuckled another guest.

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