DERBY MP Margaret Beckett said she was "not bothered" about a passage in Tony Blair's memoir which reveals the former Prime Minister only made her Foreign Secretary after exhausting other options.

The 2006 reshuffle in which Labour veteran Mrs Beckett took up the post was even branded by Mr Blair in his book, published yesterday, as the "worst of all worlds".

Mr Blair then wrote that he was never sure whether the Derby South MP could be counted on to "step up" and help him out in a tight spot.

He also tells how he thought former MP and Derbyshire resident Geoff Hoon was "completely unsuitable" to be a Chief Government Whip, a position he was appointed to in 2007.

The political memoir is the latest to rock the Labour party with revelations about its years in Government – former Business Secretary Peter Mandelson's book was released in July.

In one part, Mr Blair talks about how he decided who to back as a deputy after becoming Labour leader, a choice of either Mrs Beckett or John Prescott.

He writes: "The safe bet was certainly Margaret Beckett. She had been part of the pre-1992 economic team, she was capable and was undoubtedly a safe pair of hands.

"John brought an authenticity and he had something else that I valued greatly – in a tight spot I thought I could count on him.''

He later adds: "I wasn't so sure of Margaret Beckett. I liked and respected her but if things got really ugly, I wasn't sure she would step up and throw a protective cordon round me."

It was over a decade later in 2006 that Mr Blair made Mrs Beckett the first female Foreign Secretary, shocking many commentators.

Towards the end of his book he describes the process he went through to come to the decision, pointing out that he had considered at least three other people before Mrs Beckett.

"I had thought of making Charles Clarke Foreign Secretary. He would have done a great job and probably in retrospect I should have done it, but he was mired in the wretched 'foreign offenders' business," wrote Mr Blair.

"There was also a case for keeping Jack Straw. He had done really well. There was no compelling reason to move him other than that he had been doing it for five years.

''I even toyed with the idea of David Miliband.''

He then adds: "In the end I made a sort of worst of all worlds set of decisions. Having put David in Environment, I moved Margaret Beckett from there to be Foreign Secretary."

Mrs Beckett today said that she had not bought a copy of Mr Blair's book entitled A Journey. She said: "I expect that if I get round to buying it, it will go on a big heap of things that I really should read, but I'm not surprised at what was said.

"I knew that he had considered Charles Clarke before me for Foreign Secretary, so I'm not bothered."

Meanwhile, as Mr Blair describes the situation after Labour's 2005 election win he recalls how he had disagreed with Gordon Brown over who should be appointed to the Cabinet.

His then Chancellor had wanted Mr Hoon as a Chief Whip, but the appointment was not made after Mr Blair intervened. Breaston resident Mr Hoon was, however, later appointed to the post by Mr Brown in 2007.

Mr Blair wrote: "In the course of the night, as the result became clear, so the relationship with Gordon deteriorated sharply.

"He made a huge thing of Geoff Hoon becoming Chief Whip, a post I thought Geoff was completely unsuitable for."

Mr Hoon was unavailable for comment yesterday.