Labour's face-off

BILL Clinton is a confused man. The former president of the United States will this week finally get a chance to salute his buddy Tony Blair in his own back yard, to join the party faithful as they give thanks to the man who has guaranteed them almost a decade in government for the first time.

But Slick Willie has suddenly realised that he will be coming to Blackpool to defend the Prime Minister, not to praise him. Clinton, the great survivor, the Comeback Kid, is no stranger to strident, brutal opposition; what he is less used to is the sort of hostility from his own side that he will witness Blair confronting at the Labour party conference over the next few days.

“Tony Blair does not need me to defend him,” Clinton declared in the official conference magazine, before launching into a spirited and remarkably comprehensive defence of his friend.

“I would expect these attacks from the right. They hate not being in power. What I find strange is that some of the left join in with relish, since Tony Blair is, after all, a successful Labour Prime Minister leading a successful, progressive Labour government tackling successfully problems which drew all of us on the centre left into politics.”

Clinton’s appearance on the conference programme on Wednesday is a glitzy event that was first intended for last year, but was cancelled amid the global security alerts that followed the September 11 terrorist attacks. The speech he will deliver will be an entirely different affair.

Last year, the tensions simmering within the Labour movement before the conference were muted by September 11. Any disruptions that did emerge rumbling on the horizon, chiefly revolving around the abiding resistance to the use of private cash to bankroll improvements in public services, were clinically stifled in a deal between Gordon Brown and union leaders.

This time, the willingness to co-operate, has evaporated with the euphoria. This is an era when every conference, every face to face meeting with the mass Labour movement is billed as a showdown, promising a rocky ride for the leadership. This year, with the Private Finance Initiative dominating the domestic agenda, and competing only with the row over Iraq for attention, Blair and Brown are facing the real thing.

Bill Clinton, for one, is worried. “Britain is making a notable transition into the 21st century – in no small measure because of the leadership of my friend and your leader, Tony Blair,” he added. “It is true that he has not gone back to the old and failed politics, but instead he has made his party and country face up to change. That is a good thing, not a bad thing.”

The charismatic global politician is still revered as a standard bearer in the fightback against the domination of the right. Clinton is a handy man to have as a cheerleader at times of trouble, but a 30-minute sermon, however rousing, plus the guaranteed rapturous ovation, will not be enough to put Blair’s critics off the scent.

On Iraq, angry activists aided by a string of senior MPs including Tam Dalyell, will hold three separate fringe meetings to push their vigorous case against action on Saddam Hussein, and they will bring their discontent into the conference arena itself tomorrow.

Blair’s dossier, which aides claimed would prove the case for a military campaign against Saddam to destroy his weapons capability, has left significant sections of the rank and file, and more senior figures right up to Cabinet level, unconvinced.

On the much maligned PFI, leaders of the biggest unions have turned up the volume of their opposition in the days preceding the big event, pressing their uncompromising demand for a “moratorium” on the use of the schemes to provide public buildings including schools and hospitals.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the biggest union, Unison, yesterday upped the ante still further with his own dossier exposing the “myths” underpinning the government’s argument for more private sector involvement in public services. The document claims among other things that the PFI at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary will cost the taxpayer £30m a year for the next three decades – a £900m price tag that dwarfs the £180m cost estimated by the government.

“Of course we all want new schools and hospitals,” Prentis said last night. “But we don’t want to pay through the nose for them. These private companies are ripping off the government and the taxpayer. They are taking huge amounts of our money in profits year on year. The public sector is capable of borrowing money to finance these projects at much lower interest rates. The government is hailing its top 50 PFI projects, but just one look at that list makes me shudder to think what the bottom 50 look like.”

As well as a moratorium on PFI schemes, Prentis is demanding an independent inquiry into those that have already been started. It is a blunt instrument, but one he wields on behalf of most of his colleagues, particularly at the head of the largest unions.

“Even the most conservative union leaders tend to be more left-leaning than the current party leadership, so they have an instinctive hostility to private firms getting involved in the public sector,” one senior government source reflected last night.

But their opposition is more than simply a knee-jerk response to the shock of the new. A union-sponsored backbench Labour MP said: “A lot of this opposition is based on bitter experience. Unions and workers feel that every time the private sector is allowed to get its hands on a public service it ends up with jobs being lost.

“If they can back that up by pointing out that PFIs aren’t necessarily the best deal for the taxpayer, they have a strong case that I think you will find a lot of MPs will find difficult to argue against.”

The reality is, however, that the unions will not need the support of a single MP to prove their case this week. Unison, the GMB and TGWU will gang up against PFIs and their block vote will be enough to push through a motion endorsing their moratorium demand. The government is expecting to lose a high profile vote on one of its most important domestic policies – one that underpins its “invest and reform” agenda.

Slick Willie is right to worry. But Blair appears unmoved. The leader arrives in Blackpool today seeking no deals with the unions over PFI. In fact he has stiffened his stance against such a move even since last year. On the eve of the conference, the Prime Minister restated his view that he would not sacrifice his mission to reform the public services at the behest of recalcitrant unions. The “no surrender” message was driven home by his Chancellor, who declared: “There will be no moratorium. The idea that you could have a moratorium is completely unacceptable.”

Moreover, the public borrowing option pressed by Prentis today as an alternative to PFIs was dismissed as “reckless”. The government is committed – contractually and politically – to the programme.

Instead, Blair will reinforce his support for PFI and his demands for reforms in return for the immediate investment it represents, when he speaks to the party on Tuesday.

The leader and his entire coterie are a study in relaxation and resilience going into what should be a trying week at the seaside. Party chairman Charles Clarke said yesterday: “We remain of the view that how we perform in relation to improving our hospitals and schools will be the issue on which we will principally be judged at the next election. Reform of public services is the key message we want to get out at this conference. We will be fighting very, very hard to ensure that these issues come out. There are differences of opinion in conference, but we think that’s healthy.”

Rather than retreating from the potentially hostile elements in his audience, Blair will in fact get closer to them than ever before, with the help of a “pontoon-style” platform that will position him among the party faithful as he speaks.

The conference slogan that will appear above his head, ‘Schools and Hospitals’ is a suitably bold statement of his priorities and his no-deal message to the unions. It is also deeply ironic, as it sidesteps the colossal global issue overshadowing this gathering in a dull corner of Lancashire.

“Schools, Hospitals and Saddam Hussein doesn’t sound as good,” a party official observed as the banners went up in the Winter Gardens.

Twenty-three constituency Labour parties have put forward motions on Iraq, ensuring that the issue will dominate the foreign affairs debates tomorrow.

The grass roots will line up to express their passionate views on military action against Iraq in a series of interventions less than a week after more than 50 Labour MPs voted against the move – at least if it were undertaken without UN blessing – in parliament.

Tam Dalyell, a veteran of more than 40 years of Labour conferences, will speak at three fringe meetings designed to galvanise opposition to the planned campaign. But he remains doleful as to the prospects of forcing Blair into a U-turn, amid growing certainty that this is one issue that the leader can rely on union barons to fix for him. “I am very pessimistic about it,” Dalyell told Scotland on Sunday.

“It depends on the size of the opposition displayed in the country before the conference and what happens at the fringe meetings. But I doubt that there will be any change. I have been going regularly to Labour party conferences since 1958 and they have become far too much of a rally.”

The expectation of much shouting but no bloodshed in Blackpool, is shared on the government’s side. One Labour whip, whose day job is to ensure MPs toe the line and vote with the government, revealed he will not even be present at the conference. “There is not much point,” he said. “The vast majority of us won’t really be involved.”

Clinton may find himself in the unaccustomed position of providing a useful diversion from the main events this week, his supportive words welcome but, in the longer run, not crucial. “It will be fascinating to see how your conference compares to our conventions,” he said. “From all I have heard, there tends to be a good deal more full-blooded debate over here.”

This week, for once, such a hopeful description of a largely moribund event could prove to be right on the money.


TALKING POINTS

LABOUR Party managers will cram 20 separate speeches and policy debates into less than five days this week in Blackpool, but most of the attention - and the tension - will be confined to fewer than a handful of explosive debates.

A bullish Tony Blair enters his ninth conference week as leader better prepared to face down any internal dissent than he has ever been before.

But he will step into the unknown at least twice during the next few days, as two of his most controversial policies come under scrutiny from a restless Labour movement.

On the first full day, a phalanx of Cabinet ministers will attempt to assuage the party’s concerns over the prospect of war with Saddam Hussein.

A hard core of anti-war delegates has organised a string of fringe meetings designed to demonstrate the folly of taking military action on Iraq - particularly without United Nations agreement - and on Monday the group will lay bare their concerns in the conference arena.

Blair will attempt to draw the party together again on Tuesday, but he will face perhaps an even more damaging challenge the following day, with the increasingly likely prospect of defeat in a vote on whether the policy of allowing private finance to bankroll improvements in public services should be allowed to continue. Gordon Brown and Labour’s high command have only days to head off an expected union revolt - or continue to brazen it out regardless of the opposition.

President Bill Clinton will reinforce the message that Labour should stand by its man in a supportive and historic address to delegates hours after the public services vote. But by then, the damage may have been done.

Today:
PM - Conference opens with speech by Charles Clarke, party chairman; questions and answers on women’s issues with Patricia Hewitt and Barbara Roche.

Monday:
AM - John Prescott speech; trade and industry debate. PM - Gordon Brown leads debate on economy; defence & foreign affairs: ‘Britain in the World’.

Tuesday:
AM - Quality of life, environment; welfare. PM - Leader’s speech; treasurer’s report; transport - Alistair Darling.

Wednesday:
AM - Public services; education; crime. PM - Bill Clinton speech; health.

Thursday:
AM - Northern Ireland debate, led by John Reid; environment, food & rural affairs; culture, media & sport.