Cabinet tell Blair and Brown 'fighting must stop'

13 April 2012

Furious Cabinet ministers told Tony Blair and Gordon Brown yesterday to stop the infighting that has rocked Labour, or risk handing the next general election to David Cameron.

A tense meeting in Downing Street triggered an outpouring of anger at the way the battle for the leadership plunged the party into civil war.

Ministers took turns delivering a blunt message to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor about the need for unity at a time when the Tories are climbing in the polls.

They were led by Chief Whip Jacqui Smith who told them party discipline at Westminster would be unenforceable unless they ended the "confusion".

The anger of his colleagues forced Mr Blair to put off plans for pushing through a new policy-making programme to generate ideas for the next election manifesto.

Instead he and Mr Brown were left in no doubt about the frustration their colleagues feel over the way their feud spilled into the open with such devastating results a fortnight ago.

It was the first Cabinet gathering since the Prime Minister was forced into admitting publicly that this weekend's Labour conference will be his last as leader.

Although no one blamed Mr Blair or Mr Brown directly, every Cabinet minister present spoke out about the events in the course of a political straetgy session that lasted 90 minutes.

According to one witness, one minister said: "If we go on like this we will hand the next election to the Tories", while another warned: "We can't demand discipline from the party if we can't show it ourselves."

And one report claimed Miss Smith warned there was "a mixture of confusion and anger in the party and in the country".

In turn ministers were given a warning from Mr Blair that they should not campaign for the leadership before there is a vacancy.

He singled out Peter Hain, who has already launched his candidacy for the deputy slot, telling him: "You should not campaign before there is a vacancy."

The Prime Minister appealed for a "self denying ordinance" from Cabinet ministers for the duration of the conference to avoid fuelling the image of the party as divided.

But his message appeared to have fallen on deaf ears last night as John Reid fuelled the speculation about his intentions by making clear he was keeping his options opens.

The Home Secretary emerged from a prolonged summer silence to signal that he has not ruled out the possibility of challenging Mr Brown for the leadership if the opportunity presents itself.

The told the latest edition of the Spectator magazine: "I don't think anybody at this stage has to rule themselves out.

"I think we've got time just to take stock of the approach, the strategic position of the party and policy priorities, and I think that people will find, looking at the lessons of the last few weeks, that unity will be at a premium and that actually people want to work together more closely.

"I don't think people have to take that decision at this stage. I have said all along that I will not make any statement in any case until Tony Blair has announced he's going or when he's going."

Manwhile former union boss Lord Morris urged Mr Blair to consider hastening his departure from office for the good of Labour and the country.

The Labour peer, a close supporter of the Prime Minister when he was general secretary of the TGWU, warned that the "sacred bond of trust" between Government and people had been lost. And he suggested that Blair's continued leadership may prevent it being restored.

In an interview to be broadcast on this Sunday's GMTV Sunday programme, he said Labour was "haemorrhaging" membership and financial support and was currently "not fit for purpose" for winning elections.

"There comes a time when you have to recognise that the institution, whether party, country or government, is bigger than the individual," he said.

"No individual can be bigger than the Labour Party, however big you are as a member. And it seems to me that, given the fact that we've got local elections, given the fact that we are lagging well behind in the polls, we are demoralised, we want to be re-energised, the sooner we can get a decision, or a date, so that we can begin then to go onto the doorsteps and to articulate Labour's values."

On Tuesday Mr Reid marked his return to the frontline with a thinly-veiled attack on Mr Brown's "burning" ambition to become Prime Minister.

Claiming he had no personal ambition for the job, he pointedly distinguished himself from those who allowed themselves to be "burned up by ambition" for "the next position".

His intervention drew an exasperated response from Mr Brown's allies. One said: "This is all getting a bit tiresome, and it really is the last thing the party wants right now. That said, John's been out of the country so he may not have got the message from Tony to lay off the personal attacks."

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