“I think I have said enough for anyone reasonable to know I will do my best for myself and shag the country and the party.”

“The perennial delusion I have is that I should stay forever because the country and the world needs me.”

The most foolish thing you can do is have a debate about the leadership.”

“Those who say I am just going on and on are right and I’ve done what no other Prime Minister has ever done in a similar situation. I’ve told my wife that I will not be moved.” That, he said, should be enough for “anyone reasonable”. The important thing is that “if people want stable and orderly change they are not going to get it so they should keep on obsessing about it.”

A “very significant number of MPs”, including some former ministers, want a change of direction. “They don’t believe in the NHS reforms, the trust schools and the energy policy because they don’t work. “Well what kind of a reason is that not to believe in something?” he said.

“I totally understand what people are worried about, particularly when our position on the Lebanon was that we really didn’t care if Israel carried on doing whatever it wanted and we gave them carte blanche. That’s what we were saying. What we were also saying, however, is that you could not talk about a meaningful ceasefire while Israel thought it could defeat Hezbollah and needed the time to do so.”

Mr Blair argued that large parts of the Western world, including in Britain, still do not appreciate the seriousness of the global terrorist threat which will necessitate the setting up of a new parliamentary system with a long period (indefinite) in power for myself.

It is not just a matter of tough new laws, but, rather, of challenging the “unjustified” sense of grievance felt by many Muslims. “The fact that I slaughtered 100,000 women and children in Iraq does not justify any Muslim complaining,” he said.

“In fact, they should know that I am only starting on them”.