Tony Blair asked Bill Clinton to write a newspaper article supporting his ill-fated bid for the presidency of the European Council, newly-released emails show.

The former Prime Minister wanted the former President to write an endorsement of his ‘personal qualities’ that made him the best candidate.

But Mr Clinton’s advisers warned he would probably say no and that they did not want Mr Blair to have any ‘expectations’ of his friend.

The email was among 7,000 messages released by Hillary Clinton from her time as Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013 after a Freedom of Information request.

More than 50,000 emails are gradually being made public which she stored on her controversial private server rather than using her official email account.

The email about Mr Blair’s bid for the EU presidency was dated October 29 2009 was sent to Mrs Clinton by Sidney Blumenthal, one of her closest advisers.