TONY Blair planned to resign as Prime Minister without fighting a third general election, according to Downing Street spin doctor Alastair Campbell.
Campbell, whose long-awaited diaries will be published tomorrow, said Blair wanted to announce his decision in 2002, just months before the Iraq war.
The spin doctor warned the then PM that he would become a "lame duck" premier, although he was n
ot "totally opposed" to the idea, he revealed.
Blair later decided to carry on because of the impending war.
The memoirs also reveal that Blair and Princess Diana held secret meetings to discuss ways she could become a worldwide ambassador for Britain.
The Blair Years, to be published tomorrow and serialised by the BBC, is expected to reveal that Blair and Diana met several times, beginning before he became Prime Minister.
PR guru Campbell will also reveal in the memoirs that he sank into a deep depression over the David Kelly affair, after the government expert committed suicide in the wake of being named as the source of a BBC report into intelligence on Iraq. A source close to Campbell who had read the memoirs said: "It was the low point of his career, almost the low point of his life."
Others added that the diaries showed Campbell as a vulnerable man, in contrast to his gruff and impregnable persona.
Campbell, in an interview on the eve of publication, said of Blair's thoughts of an early resignation: "We had been going through a lot of crap."
The plan to stand down due to the pressure of events came amid disquiet over the looming military action and controversial public service reforms.
Campbell said Blair was well aware of the personal consequences of his stance on Iraq: "He knew from the word go that there would be some who would want to portray him as Bush's poodle. He was just prepared to live with that."
Campbell is believed to have revealed details of how the encounters with Princess Diana were kept secret to avoid accusations that the princess was interfering in party politics. Only a close circle of ministers and advisers, including former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, were aware of the meetings. However, it is understood Blair informed the Queen to ensure relations with the monarch were not damaged.
The princess met Robin Cook and Clare Short, the then International Development Secretary, over a plan to outlaw anti-personnel mines.
A source who claims to have seen the diaries said: "Campbell's diaries tell how Blair and Diana always held their private meetings away from Westminster. It's pretty clear they were discussing some kind of new role for her. He thought that she could do a brilliant job as a kind of ambassador abroad for his vision of a modern Britain.
"The princess was intrigued by the idea. She liked the image of the country Blair wanted to project and thought that she could make a contribution. Diana was very excited about it."
• It emerged last night that Blair's former spin doctor and Cabinet colleague Peter Mandelson is to be recommended for a peerage. Blair is expected to put the European Commissioner's name forward for the honour in his resignation honours list.
