THE Labour Party conference steward who helped to man- handle an 82-year-old heckler out of his seat was identified last night as a freelance car clamper, celebrity-minder and former nightclub bouncer.

Joe Ifill went into hiding yesterday after millions of television viewers watched the removal of Walter Wolfgang from the conference.

Mr Wolfgang, on the other hand, who was removed for shouting “nonsense” during a speech by Jack Straw, could not have been more conspicuous as he was swamped with ever more lavish apologies from Labour politicians.

His day began with a grovelling mea culpa from Tony Blair, who used a series of interviews to express his regret. “I’m really sorry about it,” the Prime Minister told GMTV. “I wasn’t in the conference centre at the time myself. It is difficult — the stewards are volunteers. They are not quite sure how to deal with a situation like that and, of course, you should deal with it differently. I’m really sorry for it and it must have been upsetting for him.”

By lunchtime Mr Wolfgang had chalked up apologies from John Reid on the platform, Ian McCartney, the party chairman, who met him in private and invited him for a compensatory beer at the Commons, and from Chris Lennie, the deputy general secretary. He also got a standing ovation when he arrived at the conference.

In case he has not grasped that the Labour Party really is sorry, Mr Wolfgang can expect a telephone call this week from Mr Straw to say that he did not mind at all being heckled as he talked about Iraq.

The attention given to Mr Wolfgang by Labour, however, only magnified the public relations own goal by the party in forcibly removing him and confiscating his pass for a handful of spontaneous heckles.

Mr Wolfgang, a passionate leftwinger and avowed opponent of nuclear weapons who joined the party in 1948, spent much of his day giving back-to-back media interviews in which he eloquently and lucidly denounced Labour’s policies, leadership and culture.

Under Mr Blair the party had failed to realise the inadequacy of neo liberalism, he said, and had descended into a culture of decadence in which debate on the Iraq war or whether to replace the Trident nuclear missile system was stifled. In time new Labour would, he predicted, come to be viewed as a “sad aberration”.

Mr Blair was, he declared, the worst leader in Labour’s history. Gordon Brown was little better and should not be leader; Jack Straw was a disappointment; Charles Clarke was weak in giving in to Downing Street over proposed powers to combat terrorism. The figures he most admires from the Labour movement were Aneurin Bevan, although Mr Wolfgang disagreed with his views on nuclear weapons, and the Labour MP and anti-war campaigner George Lansbury.

Another curious by-product of Labour’s public relations disaster was the injection of a spark of life into the nearmoribund Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, of which Mr Wolfgang is vice-president. Before Labour officials backtracked and allowed his readmission to the conference, they found themselves negotiating with Ben Folley, the CND press officer, who arranged blanket media exposure for Mr Wolfgang to argue against replacing Trident.

Mr Wolfgang, a retired accountant from Richmond, Surrey, and a German Jew who fled to Britain in 1937, had initially been stripped of his conference pass after being ejected from the hall for shouting “nonsense” and “it’s a lie” at Mr Straw.

Yesterday morning he arrived at the Brighton Centre to be met by a contrite Labour official who returned his pass. Mr Wolfgang was accompanied by Steve Forrest, 35, chairman of Erith Labour Party, who was thrown out still more forcibly after protesting at Mr Wolfgang’s treatment.

The pair were ushered by Labour officials through a scrum of camera crews, photographers and reporters back to their balcony seats from which they were so unceremoniously removed the previous day.

WALTER WOLFGANG'S VIEW FROM THE FLOOR

TONY BLAIR “His basic instincts are pretty conventional and basically those of a Tory. He is the worst leader the Labour Party has had, not excluding Ramsay MacDonald, as I think MacDonald did not know where to go but in his heart he wanted the right things. I don’t think [Blair] does.”

GORDON BROWN “I don’t think Gordon Brown is a solution. I think Gordon Brown’s politics, unfortunately, are very similar to Blair’s. I do think he has a better grasp of the Labour Party. His speech was better crafted. He did recognise markets have to be controlled. I don’t think Brown will necessarily win the leadership.”

JACK STRAW “His speech was a childish, simple analysis [of Iraq], which was unacceptable. At one time Jack Straw was capable of analysis. Jack Straw has been a disappointment.”

CHARLES CLARKE “Charles Clarke is not a good Home Secretary. If somebody has good political guts, he has got to express them about the so-called anti-terrorism agenda. You can’t eject or exclude spouters of nonsense [preachers of hate].”

MARGARET BECKETT “Margaret Beckett is too much of a conformist for me. Sometimes I have an admiration for her. I have a soft spot for her.”

HILARY BENN “On international development Hilary Benn has a tendency to be conformist, but he is doing what he can.”

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