Tony Blair is to write his own account of a decade in Downing Street, his spokesman announced last night.

The former Prime Minister has recruited Bill Clinton’s former lawyer and Washington-based political agent to broker a deal on his behalf.

Robert Barnett secured a reported $12 million (£6 million) for Mr Clinton’s autobiography — but estimates for full world serial rights to Mr Blair’s book are a record-breaking £8 million, according to The Bookseller magazine.Mr Blair’s friends said that the process was at the “very early stages”, that he had not begun to write and that the venture was years from publication.

The move suggests that Mr Blair would be pitching heavily for the US market, where political memoirs are regularly in the bestseller lists. It means that Mr Blair will be breaking a vow he once made to Lord Radice, the former Labour MP. The peer’s diary records Mr Blair as saying: “I hope I am still a human being. And I am not going to write my memoirs.”

The former Prime Minister needs a financial boost. He bought a house on Connaught Square in October 2004 for a reported £3.5 million. He then bought the house behind it for security reasons.

Mr Blair’s perceived popularity in America is likely to inflate his price. The exact amount is likely to remain secret because as he is no longer an MP, he will not have to record how much he gets in the Register of Members’ Interests. He will have to juggle writing with his role as envoy of the Quartet powers in the Middle East.

News that he is actively seeking a publisher may also be a cause for concern for the current Prime Minister. As Chancellor, Gordon Brown had a famously turbulent relationship with Mr Blair, and was accused by many of attempting to speed his departure.

Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair’s former press secretary, voluntarily removed details that could have embarrassed Mr Brown from his book, saying that he did would not reveal anything that might harm the Labour Party. Mr Blair could take a similar attitude.

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