Tribune – news, features and comment from Britain's left-wing magazine

by Keith Richmond

Gordon Brown’s return from holiday has been marred by reports that union leaders are canvassing Alan Johnson and Jon Cruddas as a “dream ticket” for leader and deputy leader. The move depends on the PM standing down, which is unlikely as Mr Brown tries to re-establish his grip on government with plans for a cabinet reshuffle and fresh policy initiatives.

The idea – first revealed in Tribune on June 6 – is part of a plan to “stop David Miliband”. The Blairite Foreign Secretary has been urged by “Tony’s cronies” to mount a leadership challenge, but continuing the privatisation and marketisation agenda of the Blair years frightens not just the trade unions but many MPs, too.

They believe that Mr Johnson, the centre-right Secretary of State for Health, and Mr Cruddas, a centre-left moderniser who did well in last year’s election for deputy leader, have broad appeal both in the party and the country.

Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, told The Observer that “with the wealth gap widening, job insecurity rife, justified anger over inequality” the Government needs to “get a grip” and get back to its roots.

That’s exactly what Mr Cruddas, who has the support of the Compass group of MPs, has been saying, most recently in Tribune (June 20).

Mr Johnson, a former postman who became general secretary of the Union of Communication Workers, is regarded as the Labour politician the Tories privately fear most.

Talk of the “dream ticket” comes as Labour faces another difficult by-election in Scotland after the death this week, following a long illness, of John MacDougall, MP for Glenrothes in Fife.

Mr MacDougall, 60, had been battling mesothelioma, an incurable cancer of the lining of the lungs. Gordon Brown visited Mr MacDougall at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkaldy on Monday.

The by-election in this seat, which borders Mr Brown’s own Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency, is another potential pitfall for the Prime Minister.

Mr MacDougall had a majority of 10,664 at the last election and Mr Brown cannot afford another defeat after the humiliation at Glasgow East last month.