Tony Blair has dismissed suggestions that he plagiarised his account of his first audience with the Queen from the 2006 film The Queen. In his memoirs, Mr Blair recalls the Queen telling him: 'You are my tenth prime minister. The first was Winston. That was before you were born.'
Scriptwriter Peter Morgan, who wrote the Oscar-winning film, suggested Mr Blair had confused reality with the film. Mr Morgan said Mr Blair had either chosen to endorse the film version, or had had 'one gin and tonic too many and confused the scene in the film with what had actually happened'.
Speaking to BBC Radio 2's Simon Mayo Drivetime, Mr Blair said: 'I hope Peter Morgan is being tongue-in-cheek about this. I can't believe that they would have written the movie without talking to somebody.' He added that he has told the story many times, calling it 'quite a funny story'.
Mr Blair laughed off the plagiarism claim, saying: 'Are you suggesting I plagiarised it from the film? I don't think that it is terribly odd because, as I say, it is a story that I have often told so maybe someone heard it and said it to him, but it is what happened.'
