London

Last week Tony Blair made a pit stop tour of Islington and Camden to bolster Labour support in the May 4 elections. But is he proving a help or hindrance? Time Out rides shotgun with the PM’s motorcade to find out.

‘Who Prime Minister?’ demands the elderly, Middle Eastern-looking woman standing in the corridor. ‘Tony Blair, our Prime Minister,’ says Oliver, one of the Downing Street press team. ‘Prime Minister of what?’ she persists as a gaggle of men in dark suits charge down the corridor and into the flat next door. Tony Blair, it seems, has arrived.

We’re on the sixth floor of an Islington council block, where Blair is doing ‘tea with the residents’ as part of a whirlwind tour to bolster Labour’s London councils in the run-up to the local elections onMay 4 – elections in which Labour looks set to be thrashed across the capital. Feature continues

I last interviewed Blair two years ago in Downing Street, and seeing him in this tiny flat today, I do a double take. It’s not just the Posh Spice perma-tan, or the fact that the suave charm I’d experienced previously has been replaced by a presence so stiff you could hang clothes on it; it’s more the realisation that, beneath the tan, this man looks seriously knackered and is doing his glassy-eyed best to keep up with his effusive, energetic hosts: Noella (‘Mama’) and Manuk (‘Papa’) Ocecki and their eldest daughter 22-year-old Nathalie. Blair’s not exactly sweating, but everything about his body language is screaming ‘I’m a politician, get me out of here!’

‘In the olden days, it was lovely – there was no crime,’ says ebullient Papa Ocecki, an Armenian Turk who has lived here for 25 years. ‘These days the crime has gone a little bit high and that is a little bit sad. Could you do something about this anti-social behaviour, please?’

The Oceckis’ estate, Priory Green, has a smart gated entrance with a concierge, it’s clean and bright, and even boasts a rubber-floored children’s playground. But it is in a (‘boo, hiss’) Lib Dem-run borough. My press briefing, entitled ‘Islington – Camden’s neighbour from hell’, informs me that ‘good’ (Labour-run) Camden has issued 203 ASBOs since 1999, compared to ‘bad’ (Lib Dem) Islington’s meagre 29.

Blair takes the bait: ‘What we’ve done is give the local authority and police the powers; the important thing is that when they get the chance to do something, they do it.’ Mama hands him the prerequisite cup of tea and seconds later appears at the door with a plate of rice and chicken, asking him if he’d like something to eat. Blair stares at the plate for one stricken moment before gamely wolfing down a mouthful. The conversation turns to football and Blair finally begins to relax: ‘My team, Newcastle, we have a very good Turkish player, Emre, and we’re moving up the league now.’

‘Yes you are, yes you are,’ agrees Papa, before getting back to the matter at hand: rubbish bags left in corridors, noisy neighbours and smashed cars. ‘If people tip rubbish, the police can fine them £100 on the spot; if neighbours are causing a disturbance, they can be evicted. It drives me mad when I hear about it,’ commiserates Blair.

Then, with a sudden nod from Hilary, another Blair press aide, we’re off. The Oceckis, the PM and his entourage pile out of the block, as half the estate turn up to shake Blair’s hand. On the Priory Green Estate, at least, for these brief moments, he’s bigger than Robbie Williams. Everyone is maniacally shaking hands and Blair is basking in the kind of adulation he probably hasn’t experienced for quite a while, when suddenly from the back of the crowd, a small boy’s voice pipes up: ‘Tony Blair, where’s our football pitch?’

There’s no time to answer. Security bundle the PM through the gates, check behind the bins for any litter-dropping suicide bombers then whisk him and the Oceckis away in a cavernous 4x4.