Blair: reforms will avoid "old tensions"

Labour Party Approves Controversial Changes

The ruling National Executive Committee voted by 19 to 1 in favour of the document, named Party into Power when it was originally published in January but now renamed Partnership in Power.

Now the document goes to the party's annual conference in Brighton in October for final approval.

The BBC's Carole Walker explains the reforms

Unlike the original consultation document, the final draft does not contain a series of options, but a list of firm recommendations to the conference.

But the leadership is heading for a major showdown with rank-and-file members at the conference amid widespread concern about the proposals.

Blast from the past: Denis Healey is heckled at the 1978 party conference

A senior union official made a ferocious attack on the document, saying it was a final assault on the link between the Labour party and the unions. Geoff Martin, London convenor of the giant public services union Unison, said it was clear that the architects of New Labour wanted to "get shot of us".

Government Minister Ian McCartney says the reforms will boost the role of party members

But the Prime Minister hailed the new document saying: "This is an important step for the Labour party which, if conference agrees, will enable us to ensure that our modernisation continues."

Party leaders hope the measures will smooth the path of the Labour Government. They say the aim is to avoid the clashes between Government and party which blighted the Wilson and Callaghan administrations in the 1960s and 1970s.

The proposals would make changes to the party's annual conference, the NEC, and the policy-making process, but constituency parties across the country have attacked the plans.

The vast majority of the 102 motions to the annual conference on the subject raise objections to the document, complain of the lack of time for consultation and demand the whole matter is put off until the 1998 conference to avoid a row in Brighton.

Veteran left-winger Dennis Skinner criticises the reforms

Opponents fear the reforms would water down the role of the unions and of ordinary party members, stifle democracy, sideline the left and make the party more presidential.