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New Labour 'will outlive Blair' Reid fuels leadership speculation
(about 2 hours later)
New Labour will not end when Tony Blair leaves office, Home Secretary John Reid has insisted. New Labour will not end when Tony Blair leaves office, Home Secretary John Reid has insisted in a wide-ranging speech on the party's future.
Mr Reid said it was still more in tune with ordinary voters' aspirations than David Cameron's Conservatives. Mr Reid also defended Gordon Brown's record as chancellor but stopped short of backing him as the next leader.
But the Labour Party faced its toughest year since 1992, when it lost a fourth election in a row, as it went through the process of choosing a new leader. Mr Reid's parliamentary aide said he had not been using the speech to mount a leadership challenge.
Mr Reid defended Gordon Brown's record as Chancellor but stopped short of backing him as the next leader. But Brownite MP George Mudie described it as an attempt by Mr Reid to "put a marker down" for a leadership bid.
Mr Brown's "record as a chancellor towers above anything anyone in the Tory Party has ever aspired to or could ever aspire to," Mr Reid said at a party gathering in Lambeth, south London. It follows newspaper speculation Mr Brown would govern in a different style to Mr Blair if he became leader.
And "personal attacks" on the chancellor will rebound on the Tories, he added. Speaking to party members in south London, Mr Reid said Labour should remain "New Labour" if it is to win a fourth general election.
New Labour does not and will not start and end with Tony Blair John ReidHome Secretary He said it should continue to adapt itself to the aspirations of the majority of working people, even if they now aspired to different things than Labour had been promoting in 1997.
Mr Brown is viewed as the overwhelming favourite to take over from Mr Blair, but Mr Reid has been floated by some as a Blairite alternative. 'Personal attacks'
The home secretary admitted Mr Blair's departure would raise doubts in voters' minds, especially as Conservative leader David Cameron was, in Mr Reid's words, "doing well" in presentational terms. He said the Tories would try to "sow the seeds" of the idea that New Labour would end when Mr Blair stood down.
With the departure of Tony Blair, people will start asking again whether Labour will stay New Labour John ReidHome Secretary
But he insisted New Labour's values were shared by every member of the Cabinet.
And he mounted a defence of Gordon Brown, who he said had been the victim of "personal attacks" by the Conservatives.
He said Mr Brown "towers above anything anyone in the Tory Party has ever aspired to or could ever aspire to".
But he also said Mr Blair's departure would raise doubts in voters' minds, especially as Conservative leader David Cameron was, in Mr Reid's words, "doing well" in presentational terms.
"With the departure of Tony Blair, people will start asking again whether Labour will stay New Labour."With the departure of Tony Blair, people will start asking again whether Labour will stay New Labour.
"And with the arrival of David Cameron, they will no doubt ask, can Labour still win as the party best suited to govern?""And with the arrival of David Cameron, they will no doubt ask, can Labour still win as the party best suited to govern?"
'Decades of work'
He said the answer to both "connected" questions was yes.He said the answer to both "connected" questions was yes.
Fourth term
"If we remain true to the New Labour approach then we can, we should, and I believe we will secure and deserve another, fourth term in government.""If we remain true to the New Labour approach then we can, we should, and I believe we will secure and deserve another, fourth term in government."
Mr Reid was setting out his thoughts on the "essence" of what the party should stand for in the future.
"It is obvious to me we will win or lose the next election by our own hand," he said.
"That is why it is so important that the electorate understand that we intend to remain New Labour to the core - and that the Labour Party itself understands the importance of doing just that."
He added: "It's important we make that very clearly indeed, because otherwise we will allow, by default, the impression to persist that New Labour is, and has been, nothing more or less than Tony Blair.
"Our opponents will try to sow that seed. They will personalise the whole issue."
Shared concept
He went on: "The Tories will try to argue that Tony Blair equals New Labour. They will say that when Tony Blair goes New Labour goes with him. That is not the case and we must show that it is not true."He went on: "The Tories will try to argue that Tony Blair equals New Labour. They will say that when Tony Blair goes New Labour goes with him. That is not the case and we must show that it is not true."
Mr Reid suggested that rather than being the product of one person - Mr Blair - the New Labour concept is the product of decades of work.Mr Reid suggested that rather than being the product of one person - Mr Blair - the New Labour concept is the product of decades of work.
"Though Tony may be stepping down, the underlying analysis and philosophy of New Labour is one shared by all of us in government and will continue undimmed. New Labour does not and will not start and end with Tony Blair." 'Marker'
Closely echoing recent speeches by his political mentor about the politics of aspiration, Mr Reid said: "It is about being clearly on the side of the many who succeed in social advance, and those who aspire to it. That is the 'many' that we speak about." Siobhan McDonagh, Mr Reid's parliamentary private secretary, said the home secretary "has never expressed a desire to be leader of the Labour party or prime minister to me".
But Brownite former minister Mr Mudie said: "I think the timing is important.
"I think it's an early attempt to put a marker down to get some of the Gordon Brown supporters to say 'we need a change of direction' so that he can say 'this is disloyalty to the leader and, therefore, I shall throw my hat into the ring or we shall find someone to do so'."
He told BBC Radio 4's World at One the speech was "probably the start of them finding a candidate to take on Gordon Brown".