Former West Bromwich Labour MP and Speaker slams 'arrogant' Blair

4.08.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 12th Jun 2006

Tony Blair's government has become arrogant and does not take fighting sleaze seriously enough, former West Bromwich West MP and Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd has said.

Now in the Lords as Baroness Boothroyd, she told BBC News 24's Straight Talk programme the government had enjoyed "far too large a majority. This meant it was "steam rolling over everything and Mr Blair was too presidential."

The prime minister came to power promising to be "whiter than white" but Lady Boothroyd spelt out what could go wrong in power. Somehow there is an arrogance that has been built in there because they feel that it doesn't quite affect them. The British prime minister now goes all over the world and is a world statesman, she said. "So it is a bit presidential with a small 'p' in that respect, but for goodness sake let us not move into presidential style," she argued.

Lady Boothroyd stepped down as Commons speaker in 2001 and sits as a crossbench peer, rather than taking the Labour whip.