A pensive Charles Clarke

Twelve days after his sacking as Home Secretary, Charles Clarke has given an “exclusive interview” to his loyal local rag, the Eastern Daily Press, and criticises Tony Blair’s recent Cabinet reshuffle which cost him his job. He said it was “not as clear as it needed to be”.

The stark front page headline reads: “Clarke Takes Swipe At PM” and quotes Charles Clarke as saying: “it was not the best of reshuffles. We never do have the best of reshufffles”.

He added: “I thought the point was to give a clear sense of redirection for the government. But in the end it hasn’t worked out like that, according to the commentators.”

Clarke still insisted that he should have been able to stay in his top job and given the chance to resolve the bungled fiasco involving the release of more than 1,000 foreign prisoners into the community.

His successor John Reid is now pinning the blame for not knowing how many illegal immigrants are in the country onto the previous Tory government. Did his predecessor not have anything to do with this?

I think Clarke has developed blinkered vision and thinking since his enforced ministerial exile. He arrogantly believes that at this stage of a parliament, the local election results had not been bad for his party.

They were catastrophic, the worst for Labour since 1992, and has launched Conservatives on the road to recovery, towards leading the next government.