Brown told: Feud will help Tories
A senior ally of Tony Blair today slapped down Gordon Brown, saying his public feud with the Prime Minister would help the Tories recover.
Former Cabinet "enforcer" Jack Cunningham said Mr Brown's fury at being denied a seat on the party's National Executive "pales into insignificance" beside the need to unite the Government and meet its pledges on public services.
Dr Cunningham was speaking this morning after the warring pair met in private for dinner to patch up their differences last night. Downing Street refused to comment on the discussions between Mr Blair and Mr Brown, leaving ministers nervously anticipating another outbreak of wrangling.
Dr Cunningham said he was surprised that Mr Brown had taken to the TV studios yesterday to criticise the Prime Minister's decision to leave him off the NEC. "It is rather curious because the NEC is not now that important in the planning of general election campaigns," he said.
Dr Cunningham continued that "the Labour Party and the Government and everyone in it should bear in mind that with a new Tory leader and apparent unity in the Tory party we face very different circumstances from those we
were looking at a few days ago. We cannot afford to be fiddling around over minor issues here.
"We have got to make sure that the Labour party and the Labour government is unified in its determination first of all to go on delivering the improvements that people want to see in so many areas. And whether somebody is or is not a member of the National Executive pales into insignificance compared with the importance of all that."
The strained relationship between Mr Blair and Mr Brown was said to have caused a row in Cabinet yesterday over identity cards, with the Chancellor launching a savage attack on the scheme, which was backed by the Prime Minister. Allies of Mr Brown were blaming the growing influence of Peter Mandelson as an adviser to Mr Blair. One source close to the Chancellor described the former Northern Ireland Secretary as "the viper in the Prime Minister's breast".
In what sounded like another rebuke, Health Secretary John Reid said that all members of the Cabinet were there to serve the country through the Labour Party. He added: "We are not in politics for what we can get for ourselves or for self-advancement."
