TONY Blair made time to support his election agent at the launch of a book about him, when he returned to his constituency last night.

The Prime Minister made a flying visit to Trimdon Labour Club, County Durham, to pay tribute to John Burton and sign some copies of his biography, The Grit in the Oyster.

Although unable to stay long, Mr Blair took time to praise the man who he described as "a friend and mentor".

He spoke of Mr Burton's "savvy" and said: "He has had an extraordinary impact on my political career."

Mr Blair talked of their 20-year friendship and said: "If life had taken a slightly different turn, it might have been him standing here instead of me - you can work out for yourselves whether or not that would have been a better thing."

Before leaving for his constituency home, Mr Blair thanked the people of Trimdon for their support.

Referring to today's visit by US President George Bush, he said: "It's going to be with a lot of pride that I show this whole area off, because it's a fantastic area.

"The people are the best of British and it doesn't come better than that."

The Grit in the Oyster tells of John Burton's role - and the role of Sedgefield as a whole - in discovering Tony Blair and reshaping the Labour Party.

Mr Blair has written the foreword, and it includes contributions from Hartlepool MP Peter Mandelson and European Commissioner and former Labour leader Neil Kinnock.

It was Mr Kinnock's comments that inspired the title. He said: "John Burton is grit. Indeed, he's probably one of the flintiest particles that the Labour Party has ever had."

The book is also about Mr Burton's County Durham childhood at the end of the Second World War. It is about playing football among the stubble of cornfields, of scrapes with the village bobby known as "Hutchy" and of boiled parsnip mashed up with butter and passed off as "banana" when austerity prevented Mr Burton's parents from getting their hands on the real thing.

It is also raising money for the Trimdon Village Hall rebuilding fund, with £1 from the sale of each copy donated to the fund.

Last night, Mr Burton said the chairman of Sunderland Football Club, Bob Murray, had been unable to attend the book launch but had sent a sizeable donation.

The Grit in the Oyster was written by Keith Proud, who for 30 years was a broadcaster with BBC Radio Cleveland. It was edited by Chris Lloyd, The Northern Echo's political editor, and has been published by the paper.

It is available for £9.99 from The Northern Echo's branch offices in Darlington, Bishop Auckland, Durham and Northallerton, from the Echo Bookshop on 0800-0150552 (plus £1 post and packing), and from newsagents in the Sedgefield constituency. It is also available through Ottakar's in Darlington, Castle Hill Books, Richmond, and will soon be in Waterstone's in Durham and Middlesbrough.