Labour in disarray after new salvo from Mandy
By Ian Dunt
Labour was thrown into further disarray today after another day of the revelations from Peter Mandelson’s autobiography threw a harsh light on the motives of those working at the highest levels of the party.
In Lord Mandelson’s account, many senior Cabinet-level figures did not believe Labour could win, including election coordinator Douglas Alexander, chancellor Alistair Darling and seemingly himself.
He recounts a meeting at which then-deputy leader Harriet Harman suggested Labour campaign on the values of “future, family and fairness”.
But Lord Mandelson, who was chairing the meeting, insisted with Mr Darling and Mr Alexander that they replace the words with “futile”, “finished”, and “f**ked”.
Gordon Brown, acutely aware of his unpopularity in the country and in the party, informed colleagues he would step down after a year if Labour won the election, Lord Mandelson wrote.
Of the many ideas floated in the run-up to the election, Mr Brown also suggested holding a ‘mega-referendum’ on a range of issues in 2011 and then to quit if he lost the vote.
The book, which is being serialised by the Times, also documents constant wrangles between No 10 and the Treasury in a manner not dissimilar to those which occurred when Mr Brown was chancellor and Tony Blair prime minister.
Mr Brown, for instance, had ruled out any rise in VAT but Mr Darling wanted to keep the option open.
The book continues to send shockwaves through the Labour party, which is still recovering from its election defeat and undergoing the delicate business of conducting a leadership election.
Lord Mandelson’s interview with the Times, in which he goes into considerable detail about the factionalism of the party during its time in power, has resurrected much of the Blair-Brown tribalism which leadership contenders have been trying hard to bury.
“The unbridled contempt that some people around Gordon had for Tony and those who worked for him was very destructive,” Lord Mandelson said.
“They were constantly winding him up – partly because that’s what they felt. Partly because that’s what they thought he wanted to hear. And also because they believed their own propaganda.
“You know they really thought Tony was a weak, ineffective prime minister whose policies they disagreed with and that were leading nowhere – certainly not in the direction they wanted.”
Ed Balls, a prominent leadership contender and long-time Brown ally, categorically denied plotting against Mr Blair on the Today programme this morning.
“I was chief economic adviser to the Treasury,” he said.
“I was never involved in an insurgency. I was very close with Gordon Brown but I also saw Tony Blair very regularly.”
A new Labour leader will be selected by the time of the party’s autumn conference. The two leading contenders are Ed and David Miliband, known as a Brownite and a Blairite respectively, although both men are trying to move away from the designations.
