by Chris McLaughlin

AN ATTEMPT by Gordon Brown to impose a City whiz-kid as Labour’s new general secretary has opened a battle of wills between the unions and Downing Street.

Support is rallying behind the former party chair and Amicus/Unite senior official Mike Griffiths in a bid to ensure the job goes to an experienced Labour insider.

Mr Brown’s favoured candidate was Paul Myners, a London businessman and chair of the Guardian Media Group and the Low Pay Commission. Mr Myners, whose career has included top jobs at Marks and Spencer and PowerGen and who also chairs the Tate Gallery, donated £9,700 to Mr Brown’s uncontested leadership campaign.

But Mr Myners is understood to have turned down the offer and Mr Brown has turned to another City figure, David Pitt-Watson, the former assistant general secretary of the Labour Party from 1997-99. Mr Pitt-Watson is the founder and chair of Hermes Equity Ownership and previous chief executive of its asset management team.

Mr Pitt-Watson was among the contenders who applied for the job when it was advertised, including Peter Kenyon, a Grassroots Alliance member of the party’s National Executive Committee.

At one stage, Unison deputy general secretary Keith Sonnet was being tipped as a potential frontrunner with Mr Griffiths. But when it emerged that Mr Brown was determined to push for somebody outside the party, support for Mr Griffiths immediately began to consolidate.

Mr Griffiths went for talks with Mr Brown on at Number 10 this on Wednesday in the hope of winning the party leader’s support. But according to his supporters he was prepared to stand firm and declare that he would run with or without Mr Brown’s support.

Mr Griffiths had been due to meet Mr Brown last week at what was expected to be a meeting to “buy him off” but that was postponed until this week. A senior figure involved in the “talks-about-talks” said: “There is a strong feeling that we do not want a City whiz-kid running the party and that feeling is growing. We want somebody with a bit more experience within the labour movement.

“There are, of course, some people who might think that Mike is not the absolutely perfect candidate, but who is? Certainly not some City financier who isn’t even in the Labour Party. This whole episode has meant that Mike is now getting support from people that might not necessarily have been right behind him before.”

There was speculation as Tribune went to press that Mr Pitt-Watson was considering withdrawing his candidacy because he was clearly not Mr Brown’s first choice. A decision is set for mid-March.