JACQUI SMITH, the Labour Party’s new Chief Whip, is a mild-mannered former schoolteacher. But, as all readers of comic books know, the mild-mannered Clark Kent had an alter ego in tights-wearing Superman. And it would appear that our Jacqui has an alter ego as Vlad the Enforcer, a terrifying authoritarian in blood-stained robes draped with the skulls of Labour MPs.

In the latter guise Ms Smith wants new powers. Notably these are powers that the Tory whips’ office (which is scarcely a libertarian let-a-thousand-flowers-bloom outfit) does not have or see the need for. And, ultimately, her new powers may usurp the powers of the Speaker of the House of Commons himself.

At the heart of the new disciplinary system will be the culture of anonymous denunciation that flourishes in some parts of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Hapless leftwingers are used to being hauled in by the whips’ office to be told darkly “people have complained”. You are never told who the complainers are. And often it is not even clear what they are complaining about — apart from your very existence.

At first I was baffled that other Labour MPs were resorting to anonymous denunciation rather than writing to you or otherwise engaging in debate about, let’s say, cuts in benefit for single-parent mothers. This was not the culture of the Labour movement, as I understood it. But, as time has gone on, and the Left of the Parliamentary Labour Party has increasingly won the arguments (on Iraq, for instance), the ranks of anonymous complainers have become ever more bitter and rancorous.

Historically, the main method of control open to party managers has been bullying, bluster and patronage. Among the inducements that could be dangled in front of individual MPs to get them in line were: a bigger office, trips abroad or a prestigious appointment to a select committee. Above all, most MP’s live in hope of a job in government. So many an MP has voted against his or her dearest principles in the hope of elevation to the dizzy heights of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Deckchairs.

But the formal power to discipline MPs lies with the parliamentary party itself. Only it can decide, normally on the recommendation of the Chief Whip, to remove the whip from colleagues and in effect throw them out of the parliamentary party. However, the roll call of Labour MPs who have lost the whip is an illustrious one. They have nearly all been vindicated by history. One, Michael Foot, went on to lead the Labour Party.

Jacqui Smith’s innovation is to demand her very own disciplinary powers. There will be no due process; no transparency and no guarantee that MPs will even be told who their accusers are. It will be Star Chamber justice. If you attempted to discipline school cleaners under this system they could take you to an industrial tribunal and win. And every single Labour MP knows this. So party managers are taking no chances. There will not be a secret ballot on the new proposals for fear they may be thrown out; instead, MPs will be expected to adopt them “by acclaim” at today’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, under the beady eyes of government ministers and whips.

The new punishment will be “suspension”. Unfortunately, it seems to have escaped the devisors of this system that the only body that can “suspend” an MP is Parliament itself (or the Speaker acting on our behalf).

Technically, under the rule change you will be “suspended” from the Parliamentary Labour Party. But that is meaningless. You are a member of the PLP only by virtue of being an MP and taking the Labour whip. And they do not intend to remove the whip from “suspended” MPs (because they want to insist that the MPs continue to vote with the Government).

But there is no doubt that these “suspensions” will be announced in a manner designed to give the impression to the public that the MPs concerned have been suspended from Parliament itself. Constituents will be left believing that there is no one to represent them. This will particularly be the case if — as apparently is the intention — some of these “suspensions” are indefinite.

It is almost as if, weary of the tiresome insistence on the rights of Parliament by successive Speakers, new Labour has decided to usurp the powers of the Speaker and decide which MPs can attend Parliament and which cannot. In no other Western democracy would the executive be allowed to interfere with the rights and privileges of the legislature in this way.

Sometimes I think that new Labour and the Left in Parliament are like the princess and the pea. Lovers of fairy tales will remember that, however many mattresses were piled up on her bed, the tiny dried pea underneath caused the princess intense irritation. New Labour has had absolute control of Parliament, the Labour Party and the British State for the best part of a decade. Yet still it finds the mere existence of a handful of left-wing MPs intolerable. So it is prepared to drive a coach and horses through the rights of MPs to get at us.

This new system of discipline is not about attendance — many leftwingers have better attendance records than some of the most slavish Blairites. Nor is it about general conduct. The Standards and Privileges Committee of the House of Commons deals more than adequately with that. No, the new system of discipline is about closing down dissent.

Party managers will, almost certainly, be successful in railroading their proposals through the meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party today. But they will find the electorate a little harder to shut up.

Diane Abbott is Labour MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington

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