Brown backers unite to 'crush' Blairite in deputy leadership race
Sunday, 20 May 2007
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Supporters of Gordon Brown have launched an "anyone but Hazel" campaign to stop Hazel Blears becoming deputy leader of the Labour Party.
Some MPs believe that Ms Blears, an ardent supporter of Tony Blair, must not be allowed to take over from John Prescott. They say it would make it harder for Mr Brown to make a clean break with the Blair years.
One supporter of the Chancellor said that Ms Blears must be "crushed" and made to come last of the six deputy leadership candidates to send a firm signal that "Blairism is dead".
MPs supporting the five other candidates have begun co-operating to stop her gaining support in a bid to destroy her deputy leadership bid. They say Ms Blears's campaign is being backed by a coterie of "ultra-Blairites" and is run like a "Blairite leadership campaign".
MPs supporting the other contenders for John Prescott's job - Jon Cruddas, Hilary Benn, Alan Johnson, Harriet Harman and Peter Hain - are expected to trade votes in the contest to stop Ms Blears winning. They will use their second preferences on the ballot paper to try to keep Ms Blears out.
The move follows a hustings last week where Ms Blears showed she was a significant threat, with support across all wings of the party. One Labour MP said Ms Blears, who is the party chair, was using the Blairite campaign machine in her "tight campaign" to be deputy leader.
"A lot of people are now saying 'anyone but Hazel'," said one MP. "If you want to see the end of Blairism she has to come last. She shouldn't just be beaten: she must be crushed."
Gordon Brown is said not to share these MPs' vehement opposition to Ms Blears. A source close to the Chancellor said: "She has done a fantastic job in restoring morale. He would be perfectly happy if it were Hazel doing this job."
But a late surge of support from Brown backers for Ms Harman, who is politically closer to the Chancellor than Ms Blears, is believed to have been partly influenced by the desire of some to damage the party chairman.
An MP loyal to Mr Brown said: "Hazel's campaign is being run like a proto-John Reid leadership bid. If she is elected as deputy leader the Blair era will be hanging over us. All she talks about is the great things we have done under Tony. But the person who is elected must try to move us on from Blair, not remind us of him."
Ms Blears has the support of key Blairite MPs, including John Reid, Alan Milburn, Stephen Byers, John Hutton, Tessa Jowell and Siobhain McDonagh.
