The New European has landed a genuine political scoop by securing the serial rights to the latest volume of Alastair Campbell’s diaries.

Today’s issue carries the first instalment in which Campbell reveals that Tony Blair was sounding out the possibility of leaving No 10 and becoming president of the European commission three years before he stood down as prime minister.

It occurred during a period of tension with Gordon Brown, the chancellor, in 2004. Blair got as far as asking Campbell, who had left his post as communications director in 2003, to consider returning in order to mastermind a campaign to secure the European job.

In the end, nothing came of the venture, but it remained a secret and Blair did not resign until 2007, as Campbell records in Outside, Inside, 2003-2005, the fifth volume of his diaries, which is due to be published by Biteback next week.

Biteback’s managing director, Iain Dale, believes they offer “an incredible insight into an extraordinary period of political history.”

The New European’s editor, Matt Kelly, called the diaries “extraordinary” and spoke of it being “a great coup for us to serialise them.”

As part of the serialisation deal, The New European is offering a free copy of Campbell’s book to people who sign up for a new a 13-week subscription package.

As Campbell remarks on his blog, with due modesty, the deal is “good for me, good for the publisher” and “good for the world.”

It also means that the life of the so-called pop-up paper has been extended beyond the original expectations of its publisher, the Norwich-based Archant.

When the national weekly was launched on 8 July, with a cover price of £2, it was thought to have a four-week lifespan. Now it has reached its 13th issue.

The paper is aimed at the 48% of British people who voted to remain in the European Union in the referendum on 23 June.

It is the second Alastair Campbell exclusive obtained by The New European. Its second issue contained the former spin doctor’s open letter to prime minister Theresa May.