Blair 'would have taken top EU job'

Tony Blair has said he would have accepted the post of president of the European Council, but it is “not on the agenda now”.

Mr Blair was speaking during a visit to his former Sedgefield constituency in the UK, where he delivered a speech arguing against a referendum on British withdrawal from the EU.

The former British prime minister was widely tipped as a possible European president after he quit office in 2007.

But the job eventually went to the far less high-profile Belgian PM Herman van Rompuy, who served from 2009 to 2014, when he was replaced by Donald Tusk of Poland.

Asked whether he would consider a future bid for a top European job, Mr Blair told reporters: “If I’d been offered it, I would have taken it those years ago. But it’s not on the agenda now.”