Tony Blair was accused of “manic” behaviour while even his own staff admitted he was out of “control” in a series of diplomatic emails The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

The documents reveal the increasing exasperation of Foreign Office mandarins in the run-up to a visit by Mr Blair to Cairo last summer.

They show Mr Blair’s eagerness to have a meeting arranged with the head of Egypt’s notorious intelligence service – and how British embassy staff complained they were being diverted from their day jobs to accommodate the jet-setting former prime minister.