GORDON BROWN is reaching a tipping point with his party. He is facing three tests which together constitute a critical mass in the equation determining the future relationship between Labour in government, the party in the country and its trade union base. In short, this is about the future of the party itself. The tests are the appointment of a general secretary, protection of agency and temporary workers and the historical link with the unions.

In each case, the Labour leader has an opportunity to display the depth of his commitment to and understanding of the needs of his party and its purpose. Opportunity to repair the connection that has been worn away as power, function and policy has been transferred wholesale to Number 10. Or to decouple further, and perhaps irreversibly, the link between the party in the country and the party in government. The latter course would weaken both and severely jeopardise the chances of winning a fourth term of office.

Some of those who are close to Mr Brown’s thinking on the best candidate for the post of general secretary – shortlisted this week and decided on March 10 – note his almost exclusive emphasis on finance, expressed in both an imperative need to raise tens of millions of pounds quickly and to install somebody with sufficient experience in management and finance to ensure the most absolute standards of financial probity. Laudable aims in themselves. But Mr Brown should not forget that, while the national executive committee collectively failed to discharge its duty to monitor and control the finances of the party, it was the shenanigans of Number 10 over donations and peerages, and secret proxy deals entered into by officials with too little experience in the party and too much bowing to Number 10 that were at fault. Not to mention the early imbroglio around Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One million pounds.

Financial balances and checks are already in place. It does not require a City whiz-kid to implement them. What the job does require is a candidate who, being steeped in the workings of the Labour Party, has the experience to restore to its membership the morale that is required successfully to rebuild the structures and organisational strength of the party, as well as sustaining its finances. Somebody who simply knows how the party works and who will be respected as a strong figurehead of the party rather than a lackey of Number 10. If Mr Brown continues to press for a City figure over a candidate with long service in the ranks of the labour movement he will be making a grave mistake and vindicate growing fears that, when it comes to understanding the party, he just does not get it.

The same applies to temporary and agency workers, which Tribune has addressed in this space over recent weeks. Protection for the 1.4 million workers who are being exploited because of inadequate laws was agreed between the Government and the unions under the Warwick Agreement and was a manifesto commitment. Last week, Labour MPs rallied to secure the second reading of a Private Member’s Bill to secure that protection under the law. Yet the Prime Minister is opposing the bill in favour of a compromise that will ensure, through a one-off commission, that the employers effectively have a veto on any proposed new law. The test is whether Mr Brown is prepared to commit himself to ensuring that the fundamental principles enshrined in Warwick are adhered to in negotiation and implemented in practice. Anything less – and especially if the commission is used cynically as a tactical bargaining tool in the Government’s joust with Brussels on the issue – would be a slap in the face for the unions and their historical role within the Labour Party.

Part of which is to supply the very thing which occupies so much of Mr Brown’s thinking – money for the next election. We hear from whispers off that Mr Brown – and certainly Jack Straw, who has been leading negotiations on behalf of the Government – is committed to sustaining the Labour link with the unions. Yet, in the absence yet of any clear statement from the Government, doubts about the detail of what may yet be proposed persist.
Mr Brown was warmly welcomed as being closer to his party and the unions than his predecessor. Now he has the chance to prove it.