by Chris McLaughlin
Gordon Brown this week opened talks with trade union leaders in the hope of rescuing his threatened reforms on policy-making within the Labour Party.
The move comes within days of the opening of the party’s annual conference in Brighton, where unions are planning to join constituency parties in overturning the two-year-old experiment and regaining a greater say in policy.
A defeat for Mr Brown – who replaced conference motions which could be voted into the manifesto with debates on topics with no vote – would be seen as a further weakening of his authority in advance of the general election.
After his meeting with trade union leaders last week and his appearance at the TUC in Liverpool, where he was given a muted reception, Mr Brown this week called a summit meeting with his entire team of non-Cabinet ministers.
The purpose of the meeting was said to be to bolster morale following a bumpy summer for the Prime Minister and to ensure that the strategic message on Mr Brown’s direction in the run up to the next general election is understood at Westminster where many MPs have written off Labour’s chances of winning the next election.
Mr Brown also sought to clear up confusion over what the Government intends to do over public spending, repeating his message to the TUC that “frontline” services will be protected.
Mr Brown is facing several fractious disputes within the party which may come to a head at the national executive meeting on 22 September. As well as demands for greater financial transparency, the executive is facing a looming row over the way women-only shortlists are being imposed in selections for prime Westminster seats.
In Burnley, where Kitty Ussher is resigning for family reasons, it has been decided that an all-women shortlist will be imposed in the face of a unanimous vote by constituency party members opposing an all-women list.
Critics say there has been no interest shown by local women which means that the selection will go to a non-local and “we’ll hand the seat straight to the Liberal Democrats”.
In Consett, the constituency chair resigned after an all-women list was imposed against the wishes of the local party. There are suspicions that Number 10 is planning to use the rule to parachute some of its party loyalists.
Deputy leader Harriet Harman, whose husband, party treasurer Jack Dromey is thought to be actively seeking a candidacy, has an influence on which seat becomes an all-women list and which are open to men as well.
Writing in this edition of Tribune (page 12), one-time champion of all-women shortlists, Rossendale and Darwen MP Janet Anderson, questions the need to continue with all-women shortlists because they have succeeded in making a difference but are now being used to keep out “unsuitable” male candidates.
