Blair-Brown schism “widens”
Chancellor Gordon Brown is reportedly up in arms over being ‘deliberately’ excluded from Labour’s National Executive Committee, the body that organises the party’s election campaigning and internal operations.
The prime minister is said to have twice rejected Mr Brown’s request to sit on the party’s governing body.
Instead Tony Blair has opted for Hazel Blears and Douglas Alexander, Mr Brown’s understudy, with the third seat going to party chairman, Ian McCartney.
Critics say the exclusion is part of a plan to diminish the Chancellor’s ‘power base.’
To the apparent chagrin of Mr Brown, he has also lost the chairmanship of the party’s 2005 general election strategy committee.
Mr Brown held the chair during the last two general elections.
According to reports, Mr Brown wanted the job to limit the influence of former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Mandelson in Downing Street.
The so-called father of spin recently rejoined Mr Blair’s press team after the resignation of Alastair Campbell.
Mr Brown is also reportedly at odds with the premier over the European draft constitution.
But the Prime Minister’s official spokesman rejected reports of a rift between Mr Blair and Mr Brown as ‘blahtastic.’
Their relationship “continues to be one of the great strengths of this government,” he added.
