AN APOLOGETIC Hazel Blears has revealed three major regrets - including her 'cruel' YouTube joke against Gordon Brown.

The Salford MP wished she had not worn a brooch saying 'rocking the boat' the day after her shock decision to quit the Cabinet looked set to end the prime minister's reign.

And she bitterly regretted the timing of her resignation, on the eve of European elections, that saw Labour's vote dip under 16 per cent for the first time in nearly 100 years.

In an interview with the M.E.N., Ms Blears - who at times seemed close to tears - said she was not part of an anti-Brown plot and had not wished to destabilise him.

But she added: "I've thought long and hard and I have a number of regrets."

Ms Blears said her decision to write in a newspaper column `YouTube if you want to' - as Mr Brown was being pilloried for an appearance on the video-sharing website - was `thoughtless and quite cruel'.

She said Mr Brown accepted her immediate apology. "I thought it was clever - it was too clever by half," she said. "It was flippant and I only realised later how hurtful it was."

Ms Blears quit as communities secretary a day after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and north west minister Beverley Hughes said they were standing down. She was then followed by Stalybridge and Hyde MP James Purnell, who quit as work and pensions secretary.

Ms Blears had already looked set for the chop in a reshuffle over the expenses row. She handed a cheque for more than £13,000 to the taxman when it emerged she had avoided capital gains tax on the sale of her London flat because it had been registered as her primary residence - but at the same time it was registered as her second home for parliamentary purposes.

She admitted she was shocked when Mr Brown publicly described her actions as unacceptable. "At that moment everything became much more difficult," she said. "I had come to the view it was not tenable to remain and that I should go back to bread-and-butter basics in Salford.

"I only talked about it with colleagues who are friends and not with other Cabinet ministers.

"There was no plot. I had no idea James [Purnell] was going.

"I genuinely thought I could go without it sparking off this huge firestorm. In hindsight that judgement was wrong. I should have waited until after the election. The effect on the party is something I will live with for ever.

"I am not the person the national media has painted me. I had not done many of the things that had been alleged against me."

Ms Blears said Mr Brown had sent a `very generous' letter after her resignation.

"He said he wanted me back in government," she added.

Ms Blears was later pictured arriving in Manchester with the `rocking the boat' brooch - seen as a coded message to Mr Brown. But the MP said: "It was a brooch my husband had given me. I'd had four weeks of intense media pressure, the like of which I have never known, not just on me but on my husband, my dad, my family.

"At that point I'd had enough. It was a stupid thing to do but I think it was just trying to put a brave face on - not going out cowed on the basis of expenses claims that genuinely are not true."

Ms Blears rejected claims by former Europe Minister Caroline Flint that women were `window-dressing' in the Cabinet.

"I don't recognise that," she said. "I don't think it is `window-dressing' and I don't think it is Gordon Brown. It is inevitable in politics that you make really deep friendships. I was counter-terrorism minister and that is not window-dressing. But we do need more women at every level."

Ms Blears said she intended to throw herself back into local campaigns - including keeping pubs open and fighting for more jobs and investment in Salford. "I am not going to be back in government," she added.

She said she hoped there would be no attempts to deselect her at a meeting of her Constituency Labour Party later this month.

"What I do welcome is the chance to talk to the party and go through everything that has happened and acknowledge my mistakes," she said.

Ms Blears also revealed she has never considered stepping down as a constituency MP.

"What Salford needs is an MP who is going to be fighting for them, 100 per cent," she said. "I am someone who knows how the system works and will fight to get investment into the city."

Click on our video player (right) to see extracts of the interview.