Rt Hon John Smith

You didn't give up politics after the heart attack — did you ever consider that?

Oh, you have to. Oh, you have to in that circumstance. I mean, I thought about it quite a lot and I thought, you know, w will I be fit to do it? Do I want to do it? I mean, I could have walked away from uh politics uh without any difficulty then if I'd had any doubts about it. Uh but I thought about it very carefully, talked about it to my family and um We all felt that that was what I really wanted to do and uh my doctor said I would be fine, so and it's turned out that way.

Isn't your fundamental problem convincing the electorate that the Labour Party is capable of running the country after all these years in opposition?

I think that's the task for all political parties in all circumstances, and of course you're right in saying that it's a special obligation on a party that's been in opposition for some time. Although I think we are succeeding, we are assisted greatly, of course, by the incompetence of the present administration, particularly in the field of economics, and you wouldn't have to be too ambitious to see you could handle things a little bit better than they did.

Hasn't John Major shot your foxes as Chancellor of the Exchequer — entry into the ERM, bringing down inflation, the poll tax gone?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And uh we were right about a number of things and they've had to understand that and uh accept that.