TONY BLAIR will tell the Labour Party next week that it must reach out beyond its declining base of activists and change itself before a fourth election victory can be secured.

At a special political Cabinet meeting yesterday, the Prime Minister reiterated that the Government should use its third-term mandate to ensure radical reforms in Britain are irreversible. He also made clear that much of next week’s conference will be devoted to the party’s revitalisation. Membership has fallen to about 200,000 since 1997, and in the election campaign the party relied heavily on paid telephone canvassers. “Tony’s focus this year is as much on the delegates inside the hall as the voters outside it,” one Cabinet colleague said.

The Times has obtained documents setting out far-reaching proposals for the reform of Labour’s rule book, to be debated by the conference on Sunday before going to a final vote next year. These include plans for a National Supporters’ Network of people who are not full members but want to be involved. The party has a database of 50,000 supporters and believes this can be extended to include hundreds of thousands. Some modernisers have urged Labour to adopt a system like that in the US, where registered Democrats and Republicans select candidates through primaries. Officials emphasised that this was not their intention.

Ian McCartney, the party chairman, will present the reforms as a charter of rights for party members. He tacitly acknowledges that activists have felt excluded from the policymaking process, particularly on “real-time issues” such as Iraq. The changes would ensure Labour’s policy forums had control over policy documents as well as more powers to debate events as they happen.

But Mr Blair, in his foreword to the reform paper, says local parties must abandon their traditional methods and open out to their communities. “We cannot allow ourselves to be confined exclusively to an activism that is defined by our ability to attend a cycle of meetings. Our most innovative campaigners identify and inform a group of active supporters far wider than card-carrying members.”

The party leadership wants to scrap constituency party general committees in their present form so that all members — as well as key figures from the local community — are invited to a wider political discussion on issues such as the local factory, health service or crime.

At the political session of the Cabinet, the Prime Minister said he would use the conference to thank party supporters for their huge role in achieving an historic third term for Labour. But in his message for the delegates’ magazine, he goes on to say that “the real reason for celebration is the chance we have been given to embed and accelerate the changes we are making to this country”.

No 10 yesterday released an analysis of the election result intended to counter those urging the party to shift leftwards and reclaim votes lost to the Lib Dems in May. The paper showed that the Tories are the challengers in 19 of the 25 most marginal seats. “Therefore swings to the Conservatives are much more dangerous than swings to the Lib Dems,” it said.

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