I think he is fatally damaged.

Lord Hattersley

"Whether he's as bad as his critics make out or whether he's as good as he says himself, he has now become a subject of deep embarrassment to the government.

"While he remains, attention will be deflected from the job he's supposed to do, to questions about his character."

In a spin

Mr Byers - who has been embroiled in the ongoing row over spin - is currently under attack following the suspension of his head of news, Ian Jones, who has been suspended on full pay as part of the inquiry into the leaks of e-mails to newspapers.

Mr Byers has also effectively admitted not telling the truth over his involvement in civil servant Martin Sixsmith's resignation. However Lord Hattersley believes the scandal has gone too far to save Mr Byers.

"I think he is fatally damaged," he said.

Foolish

Lord Hattersley went on to say that the prime minister, Tony Blair was foolish to rule out a public enquiry into the Stephen Byers affair, which could have "cleared the air."

Lord Hattersley believes Prime Minister Tony Blair can get away with anything

The former home secretary also claimed that the scandal shows that "Tony Blair doesn't really like politics or politicians".

"He thinks that politicians are probably people that have been attracted to that trade because they weren't very good at anything else," he said.

"He certainly, I think, trusts the bright young men and women who he's recruited to Downing Street, far more than he trusts most of the members of his cabinet."

He claimed that some members of the prime minister's cabinet felt they were not involved enough collectively in the making of government decisions.

Opposition

Lord Hattersley also predicted that Tony Blair would face strong criticism from Labour backbenchers if he goes ahead and supports a US military attack on Iraq.

"I think he faces a great deal of opposition unless he can demonstrate that there are nuclear and chemical weapons in Baghdad which can be delivered to the West or can be delivered to Israel," he said.

However, he remarked that Mr Blair can unequivocally "get away with almost anything" within the Labour Party for three reasons.

"One is gratitude that he won after 18 years. One is the most extraordinary re-creation of the Labour Party in his image, " he said.

"The third is the belief that the people outside there - a belief I think is absolutely accurate - prefer us to anybody else."

You can hear the HARDtalk interview in full at the following times:

BBC News 24 (times shown in GMT)
5 March 0430, repeated 2230