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Gordon Brown has been accused of losing his way by Peter Mandelson, who attacked him yesterday for leaping on “passing bandwagons” while failing to tell voters what the Labour Party stood for.
As Mr Brown found himself assailed by criticism and gloomy polls, Mr Mandelson told him that Labour must get back to basics and rekindle its core convictions.
Such advice is likely to infuriate Mr Brown, who has long sought to project himself as the keeper of Labour’s conscience and assiduously courted the party’s union and grassroots power bases. It came as Lord Levy, formerly Labour’s chief fundraiser, sought to reopen tensions with Mr Brown’s predecessor in No 10 by claiming that Tony Blair told him several times that Mr Brown could never beat David Cameron in an election.
First extracts from the memoirs of Lord Levy, who was arrested in the police cash-for-honours inquiry but not charged, were published in The Mail on Sunday yesterday. Lord Levy said that Mr Blair told him that he thought his successor would be unable to match the Tory leader’s sense of timing, personality and natural ability to connect with voters in Middle England. He also revealed how he was asked by a senior figure within No 10 to confront Mr Blair over the “long massages” that the Prime Minister was reportedly receiving from Carole Caplin, the Blairs’ personal trainer.
Mr Blair swiftly issued a statement denying the claims about Mr Brown, but the row reinforced the impression of disunity within Labour. Lord Levy, who raised money for Labour for more than a decade, said he never doubted that Mr Brown knew of the secret loans from millionaires at the heart of the cash-for-honours saga.
He further said that, in Mr Blair’s final year at Downing Street when plotters attempted to force him to stand down, he railed at Mr Brown as duplicitous and branded him a liar.
Two polls added to Labour’s problems: an ICM/Sunday Telegraph survey gave the Tories a ten- point lead over Labour, and an ICM/News of the World poll of Labour-Tory marginal seats found a 9 per cent swing from Mr Brown to Mr Cameron.
Ministers tried to rally round Mr Brown, with several admitting in interviews that he faced a difficult period while blaming a midterm backlash and the global credit crunch.
The most candid intervention was from Mr Mandelson, a European commissioner, confidant to Mr Blair and, until recently, sworn enemy of Mr Brown, although in recent months he has offered the Prime Minister private advice.
“The party has got to pull itself together, refocus and make sure that it is presenting itself, what it stands for and its policies in a way that the public can understand and appreciate and feels is really relevant to their everyday concerns,” Mr Mandelson told Sky News.
“Looking to different passing bandwagons, or hobby horses or marginal issues really is not the way, in my view, for any government to present itself if it is going to sustain its support in the country. So I think that having been given a wake-up call, the party can and should refocus.”
His reference to hobby horses and marginal issues appeared to allude to Mr Brown’s attempts to follow the agenda of mid-market newspapers with such initiatives as banning plastic bags, holidays to celebrate the successes of the Armed Forces and his Britishness agenda.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, led attempts to shore up Mr Brown’s position, but said that Labour must “make sure that people can see, in what we do, the convictions that hold us together as a party”.
The message that Mr Brown must make clear what Labour stands for was reinforced bluntly by Graham Stringer, a disaffected Labour MP, who said that people in his Manchester Blackley constituency did not understand the compensation pledged for those who lost out from abolishing the 10p tax rate.
“What the Labour Party needs to do is start communicating its central message as clearly as possible, which is to be on the side of the poor and the weak, and the whole of the 10p fiasco and the 42 days [anti-terror] proposals actually make that very unclear as to whose side we are on,” he told The World This Weekend on BBC Radio 4.
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And what exactly does the Labour Party stand for these days?
Money supply & price inflation. Illegal wars. Property bubbles. Total surveillance. Taxpayer bailouts. 'PFI'. The highest personal & national debt more or less anywhere. The sale of all that gold...
We'll all be labouring a long time.
Dave Hall, Stafford, UK
Only an entity like Labour could introduce such invaluable public assets like help for the needy, opportunities and education for all, decent housing for all, health care for all, the minimal wage...
The Tories are wolves in sheep clothing, who only want to line up the rich and powerful's pockets
Bill Grau, London, UK
Labour's downward decline was sealed by Brown who screwed up the best financial position the UK was ever in by:
-Pensions robbery
-Selling 50% of the Bristish gold reserves at the bottom of the market
-His support of devolution
-His support of wars without funds
-His inability on tax management
MT, london, UK
They say it aint over till its over it is now for brown and co it is over no way back now the nail is in the coffin thank god, for crying out loud are we that thick in this country he does not even look anything like a prime minister so why the heck should he act like one come on Boris and David
John, Leicester, England
Do Mandelson and Levy really have that much room to talk? Spin Doctors and manipulators both with a dubious past. I don't like Brown but I'm not sure I'd prefer either of these two.
judy, Liverpool, England
Great stuff. Keep it up Mandelson. Britain's Got Talent. I love it.
david, Bromley,
When the likes of Mandelson join the chorus Brown must know he's doomed.
A.Williams, Cradley Heath,
First there was two,and soon there will be three.Thanks for the reminder Mendelson.
Robert, Derby, Derbyshire
Peter 'Lend us a quid - Maserati' Mandelson giving lessons on what Labour stands for.
Do we take Mandelsons lessons that Labour is a party of shady deals and exploitation for ones own ends?
Shut up Mandelson, if the British had a choice you'd be working the till at Tesco's
Phill , The Wirral, England
Two discredited men having a go at the PM.
I always thought of Mandelson as akin to the chil catcher in Chitty chitty bang bang.
Lord Levy seems to be desperate for money by publishing a book , which will no doubt end up in bargain bin of some book shop.
I find both these men make my skin crawl ,
Disgruntled Dorothy, Glasgow, Scotland
Two perfect examples of what to do with failed politicians who have outlived their usefulness.
Levy - The Bagman- Kick him upstairs.
Mendelson - Master of Spin - Send him to Europe
This demonstrates how irrelevant the House of Lords and the EU are to NuLab
R Bingham, Lauzun, France
Britishness is very important to Brown.One day the West Lothian question, and Alex Salmond, will scupper Scotish Labour MPs.
If he is to rely on English votes he needs Union Flag pants,as do a good number of his Cabinet and friends.
Mr Stringer,Darling does not understand the comp. package either.
robert everitt, wolverhampton,
Mandelson - "Back to basics", the phrase that sounded the death knell for John Major's government in the 1990s.
Was this a subtle analogy confirming what we all know: Brown's down and out ?
R.M., London, England
Ray, Newcastle, suggests Mandelson is a failed politician, that is why he is a high ranking official of the EU. Nothing new in the hapless and hopeless sliding up the greasy pole. Especially if you happen to be a friend of the top dog.
wills, soton, uk
Who is Mandelson ?
Terry Dell, Weybridge, UK
Oh Mandy, you lost your way from day one !!!!!
Ian Payne, WALSALL,
sorry Ray, I think Mandelson and Levy are reflecting the feeling of the majority, its something called democracy, a concept that Brown decided to avoid when he decided he would become prime minister without consulting the majority.
James, Southampton,
Peter Mandelson attack on PM Gordon Brown is negative?
All politician of the day may know Mr Mandelson is a bad looser, his article has no explanation, and why this media trying to break it's, neck to pomote any crap against PM?
Is this not a media hype?
Cllr Ken Tiwari (Independent), Oxford , United Kingdom
Always thought that New Labour would self destruct and Brown has set the clock ticking!
Paul Savage, Lambourn, UK
Mmmm. The words pot, kettle and black come to mind.
Mike L, Chippenham, Wilts
Mandelsohn and Levy sounds like a pawnbrokers, which of course is what Levy did for the party so successfully. as for Mandelsohn well Europe is welcome to him.
mike sanders, hong kong, china
Labour top politicians are all "has-beens" -
Investigated by the police, tarnished with Iraq, and with the economy in free-fall, who with any iota of common sense is going to trust them.
richard mullens, London, Europe
Nice to see David Miliband joining the save the dodo campaign. How long before he offers to put the poor creature out of its misery?
Cromwell, Leeds, England
Mendelson and Levy are failed polititians survived by Brown, so who are they to call the odds. Brown is in troubled waters, there's little doubt about that, but does anyone still listen to Mendelson and Levy? I think not!
Ray, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK