Wilson’s power stays intact

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 15

Wilson’s power stays intact

(New Zealand Press Association —Copyright) BLACKPOOL, October 3. The Prime Minister (Mr Wilson) has emerged from the annual Labour Party conference with his power intact and his policies unchanged. He received much criticism, and the stormy behaviour of many of the 3000 delegates who assembled in Blackpool this week left little doubt that the party remains divided and emotionally insecure.

But four full days of rhetoric delivered and resolutions passed under the chandeliers and . Victorian ceilings of Blackpool’s Winter Garden could not alter the central fact that the power to determine Britain’s present course lies not with the party delegates but in the relationship between Mr Wilson and the powerful trade unions.

That relationship was designed during the summer by Mr Wilson and two key union leaders — Mr Jack

Jones of the Transport and General Workers’ Union and Mr Lionel Murray, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress. It has since been ratified by the majority of Labour members in the Parliament, and cemented by the economic facts of life facing Britain. The two chief economic facts of life are raging inflation and a serious deficit in the balance of payments. Together, they have pushed Government, unions and Parliament into a policy of strict wage controls, tight money, and a gradual slowdown in public spending. Mr Wilson, however, rejected any suggestion that the Labour Party was being harmed by recriminations between factions over the Government’s anti-inflation policy. In a television interview he dismissed the bitter exchanges and public slanging matches between ; prominent members as a “little bit of in-fighting” on the fringes.

Asked about a stormy attack by the Left-wing former party chairman, Mr lan Mikardo, on trade union leaders for too meekly accepting the Government’s policy. Mr Wilson remarked that some executive members were idiosyncratic in what they thought and said.

There was uproar at a rally near the conference hall when Mr Jones rushed on to the stage to shout angrily at Mr Mikardo. Another public quarrel was reported between the Secretary of State for Employment (Mr Michael Foot) and Mr Mikardo in a hotel lobby, although the two men later said they had been having a fair and open disagreement — something the Labour Party boasts it can take in its stride.