THE PRESS TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1988. Labour Party tensions

Press, 30 August 1988, Page 20

THE PRESS TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1988. Labour Party tensions

The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, raised a few eyebrows with his public declaration this week that the Labour Party member of Parliament, Mr Jim Anderton, of Sydenham, would be “unacceptable” as president of the party. That Mr Lange should hold this view is no surprise; that he should want to influence the party’s selection of a new president later this week is no surprise either; but it is unusual that he should use the public arena for what is essentially the internal business of the party. Mr Anderton, a former president of the party before he stood for Parliament, is one of six candidates nominated for the presidency. The election is regarded as pivotal for the conference and for the party, and for the future of Mr Lange’s Government. It is perhaps indicative of the seriousness of division within the party that Mr Lange should so publicly seek to disqualify one of the candidates in the eyes of delegates.

Mr Lange said that although Mr Anderton might encourage some traditional members of the Labour Party to return to the fold, it would be at a cost to the party. Mr Lange is taking a risk, presumably a calculated one, because his party’s conferences have become increasingly restive about the direction and management by the Parliamentary wing of the party. His condemnation of Mr Anderton could ensure a firming of support for Sydenham’s member, if indeed Mr Anderton pursues the battle. When he closed the party’s annual conference last year, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Palmer, warned against growing factionalism in the party. Trade union and radical Left-wing elements of the party’s traditional constituency had abandoned the restraint they had shown during the previous three years. They had been held in check by the spectre of yet another one-term Labour Government; Labour’s re-election in 1987 released the pent-up alarm and annoyance that many traditional Labour supporters harboured about the Government’s performance.

A desire to bring its members of Parliament to heel led the Labour Party conference, in consecutive years, to adopt constitutional changes that now entrench control of the party manifesto by the party conference. Many of the party’s hierarchy, and not a few of its members of Parliament, are unhappy with this limitation on a Labour Government’s freedom to manoeuvre; but arguments about the need to be able to

respond pragmatically to changes in the real world, and about having to govern for the benefit of the whole country, have not dissuaded the bulk of the party from its determination.

Because he is an outspoken opponent of the extremes of Rogernomics, and because he is a champion of what he considers to be the traditional welfarism of the Labour Party, Mr Anderton has become something of a natural leader of those disaffected but still influential sections of the party. The Government caucus recognised this when it decided to defer, until after the conference, consideration of whether to discipline Mr Anderton for abstaining from votes in Parliament on the sale of State assets. At worst, disciplining would mean dismissing him from the Labour caucus. Had the caucus censured Mr Anderton at the time, of course, the martyrdom would almost certainly have ensured his election as president. If this week-end’s conference goes ahead and elects Mr Anderton anyway, the hand of caucus will be stayed permanently, and the wrists of Mr Lange and his Cabinet colleagues will have been dealt a firm slap.

This helps to explain why Mr Lange is so opposed to Mr Anderton’s presidency; but it does not explain why he should make a public issue of it a week before the vote is taken. As Harold Wilson, another Labour Party Prime Minister in another country, once said, a week is a long time in politics. Mr Anderton, who once opposed the idea of the party president being a sitting member of Parliament might yet decide to withdraw from the race and throw his support behind another of the candidates who has views similar to his own. The party, which accepted Mr Anderton’s caveat about its presidents being sitting members once before, might not be prepared to reverse its view. In spite of his personal popularity within the party, a number of other considerations lead most people to believe that he is probably only third favourite for the post at best. Mr Lange’s broadside could change all that, but not necessarily in the way that Mr Lange hopes. Presumably, Mr Lange has pinned his hopes on the conference’s accepting that working with Mr Anderton as president would not just be difficult for the Government; it would be impossible. In effect, Mr Lange has said that votes for Mr Anderton would be votes of no confidence in the Government, and Mr Lange wants everyone to know it.