Tony Blair A ' Sad, Shady' Man Says Ousted BBC Chief Greg Dyke

The Huffington Post UK  |  Posted: 20/10/2013 10:06 BST  |  Updated: 20/10/2013 10:06 BST

Tony Blair has been called "a shady figure" and a "very sad man" by former BBC director-general Greg Dyke.
In an explosive interview with the Financial Times, he also said the former Prime Minister had betrayed the very ethos of the Labour Party.

Mr Dyke is a well-known critic of Mr Blair since a BBC reporter claimed the intelligence dossier on Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, was "sexed up" by Blair's administration to strengthen the case for the invasion of Iraq.
Downing Street was furious and Mr Dyke resigned following the resultant inquiry into the claims.
He revealed Mr Blair had attempted "patch things up" after the spat – which he dismissed, claiming the relationship was beyond repair.
"He invited me for tea. I didn’t go," he said.
"My relationship with him, which wasn’t worth anything, was completely broken."
"I think Blair now is a very sad man, rich, but [he] betrayed everything the Labour Party was about."
Mr Dyke – now the chairman of the Football Association – also slammed Mr Blair’s current pursuits, deriding the multimillionaire for his "shady" business ventures.
"He’s a bit of a shady figure. If you go around a bunch of suspect Middle Eastern governments, taking vast sums for advising them – I laugh when everyone talks about senior pay, saying that no one must earn more than the Prime Minister.
"I keep saying, 'Hang on, is this what the Prime Minister earns in office or what the Prime Minister earns over the next 20 years?'"
In his 2004 autobiography, Inside Story, Mr Dyke, 66, condemned the former PM as "a man without real principle."
He wrote: "He was either incompetent and took Britain to war on a misunderstanding or he lied."
"We were all duped. What is really frightening is that Blair still doesn't believe or understand that what he did was fundamentally wrong."