Tony Blair, as I report in today’s Sunday Telegraph, is trying to rein in his supporters, keen that they not become to Gordon what the Eurosceptic ‘Bastards’ were to John Major. The former PM is right that his own reputation will suffer if a neo-Blairite rump is perceived to be sabotaging Brown.
Such considerations, however, do not seem to have restrained Lord Falconer, the ultra-Blairite former Lord Chancellor, who pointedly calls on Gordon today to offer a ‘vision’ – the very word used by the PM when he explained why he was not holding an election now. It is widely reported that Alan Milburn, Stephen Byers and Charles Clarke are preparing to weigh in.
This would be a grave error. Whether or not the Blairite critique of Gordon is justified, the public hates divided parties. The Eurosceptic attack on Major in the mid-Nineties was mostly well-deserved. It was also a crucial factor in the sheer scale of the Tory collapse in 1997. For better or for worse, the Labour Party chose Brown as its leader and could not even organise a challenger from left or right so that there was at least a debate about the Government’s trajectory. The party must live with its choice. To do anything else would be to court oblivion.
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