Labour ''damaged by selfish factions''

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham has criticised Peter Mandelson who has revealed in his memoirs what Burnham called "egotistical factions" in the Labour party that only served to demoralise the party and the electorate.

Burnham said: "Never again can the people's party be run in this way, with egotistical factions and their friends in the media meeting on the London dinner party circuit to plot each others' demise. The losers were the party members who were demoralised by the disunity at the top of the party while they were flying the flag for Labour on doorsteps across the country.

"Party members are fed up to the back teeth with the arrogance of those who say and write what they like while telling members how it's going to be."

He went on: "We have to move on from these self-indulgent, Westminster elites, who are still running their old battles, to make the change that Labour needs if we are to win back the trust and support of the voters we lost."

The Mandelson memoirs appear to have upset other Labour leadership candidates and senior members of the party. Ed Balls is said to be "furious" but the temporary party leader Harriet Harman disagreed with former Labour spin doctor Charlie that the election campaign managed by Mandelson had been the worst ever, insisting that the party had done well to avoid a much bigger defeat.

Whelan told the Sunday Telegraph: "Peter ran the worst general election campaign in Labour's history. Nobody knew what the message was at all. It was a disaster from beginning to end. Peter wasn't focused on the campaign at all. Clearly his only thoughts were for his book."

But John (now Lord) Prescott said on the BBC: " I have to say, Charlie, you're doing now what used to happen to Labour before and it did contribute to our defeat. Can we put that behind us and can we concentrate on what people are concerned about in this country?"

He added: "We lost the election when we started attacking each other about Brown and Blair – now being reiterated in Peter's book – and then some of the people on the sides coming in and blaming somebody else. Could we forget all that?"