LABOUR’S leadership tensions reopened last night as Blairite MPs blamed Gordon Brown for one of its worst by-election defeats and the Chancellor’s allies voiced frustration that he was still being denied the chance to run the party.
On a day of recriminations after the Liberal Democrat victory in Dunfermline & West Fife, Mr Brown was left to carry the can for a defeat that happened on his home territory after a campaign in which he had played a prominent part.
Senior Blairites who remain doubtful about Mr Brown’s readiness to carry on Tony Blair’s reforming crusade said that the campaign had raised questions about him. One said: “People are bound to wonder how, if Gordon is not in touch with people in his own back yard, he will get the message over to Middle England.”
There was a similar message from Sir Menzies Campbell, the acting Lib Dem leader. “This must raise some questions about the [Labour] succession,” he said. The Lib Dems overturned a 11,500 Labour majority after a battle in which local issues such as plans to increase tolls for the Forth Road Bridge had a big influence.
And, despite the efforts of Alistair Darling, the Scottish Secretary, to “take the bullet” for Mr Brown, and a ferocious attack from Brownite MPs on the behaviour of ministers in the Scottish Executive, the Chancellor’s friends accepted that, so long as he was a prime minister in waiting, the media and opponents would hold him as responsible as Mr Blair for Labour misfortunes.
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One Scottish MP nevertheless described colleagues in the Edinburgh Parliament as “stupid people who could not organise a piss-up in a distillery”.
The authority of both Mr Blair and Mr Brown will be on trial next week when the Government faces a series of difficult votes on identity cards, terrorism legislation and smoking, and two weeks later when the much-contested Education Bill finally appears.
“It may be unfair, but it is something Gordon is having to live with. We are gloomy,” a senior ally said. Another added that Mr Brown was now the target of the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party, “but he cannot show he could run the country and party while Tony is still Prime Minister”.
Another said that the next election would be all about David Cameron versus Mr Brown and perhaps that contest should get underway soon.
Labour ministers and officials were trying to play down the result as a “one-off” with little relevance to the national position. But, with a series of key votes next week, and Mr Brown planning a speech on security on Monday as part of his continuing preparations to become Prime Minister, it could not have come at a worse time.
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Mr Brown will announce that the Government is to fund the creation of a modern Bletchley Park, where financial experts can come together to break down the money networks of al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
Yesterday, Mr Blair tried to put the defeat behind him, appealing to Labour rebels to keep faith with him. In a speech to activists, he warned that defeating him over antiterror measures and his controversial school plans would risk their grip on power.
Mr Blair said that the threat of Labour rebels joining Opposition MPs to vote against the new crime of glorifying terrorism “beggars belief” in the present security climate.