Blair: no turning back

Blair Battles Left-wing

Tony Blair is facing further attacks from Labour's left-wing after it emerged that the leadership was considering proposals for a centralised register of "approved" Parliamentary candidates.

The left-wing Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn said the proposal opened up an "appalling vista for a party rooted in local democracy".

The Prime Minister had already riled leftwingers with his uncompromising message on Saturday that there would be no delay or watering down of internal party reforms.

"This is new Labour, undiluted. Irn Bru. And will remain so," he told Labour's Youth and Women's Conference in Bournemouth.

He fiercely defended party proposals which critics have claimed are a bid to marginalise the left and the trade unions and turn the annual conference into little more than a "rally" to endorse the Government.

The latest row with the Labour left came after the Sunday Times newspaper said a leaked document showed the party leadership was set to take sweeping new powers to vet Labour's candidates.

The 'paper said that under the proposals future candidates would have to be nominated by their local or regional party. Applicants would then be called to a weekend "school", including a day of "rigorous assessment" involving mock news conferences, television and radio shows and public speeches, and a section called "doorstep mode".

The report said a team of regional officials would then decide whether a candidate should be recommended, have further training, or be regarded as unsuitable. Rejected applicants would be banned from standing at the next general election.

Responding to the report, a Labour Party spokesman said: "The question of whether or not there should be a central register of approved candidates is being discussed at the moment."

At present, Labour's 600-strong candidates list is open to anyone who has been a party member for two years, and local parties can select as they wish. The party's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) can refuse to endorse a local party's choice, but this rarely happens.