Labour cracks down on Liverpool's left

LABOUR COUNCILLORS in Liverpool are to be forced to take lessons in ethics as part of a drive by the party's Millbank headquarters to clean up Merseyside's reputation as a bastion of Old Labour and the Militant Tendency.

A taskforce appointed by Labour's National Executive Committee found no evidence of corruption but is demanding that the 37-strong group of councillors be given "training on ethical standards". It also recommends the creation of a Liverpool Standards Committee open only to "persons of high repute in the Liverpool community". And it wants councillors who work for council-funded community projects to be forced to give up their seats.

The clean out began last week at a private meeting between the taskforce and councillors. Jack Spriggs, chairman of the Labour group, was unable to attend because he was by his wife's deathbed. Nevertheless he was sacked. Frank Prendergast, the leader of the group, was told he must face re- election by party members.

The result of the election will not be binding on the NEC, which will have the power to appoint if it is unhappy with the result of the ballot.

Throughout the 1980s, Liverpool became synonymous with Derek Hatton and his supporters in the Militant Tendency. Hard-left-wingers were eventually purged from the party but it remained obstinately Old Labour. The taskforce was sent in last year after the Liberal Democrats took overall control. Although Labour won 69 per cent of the vote at the general election it managed only 27 per cent in the council poll.

As part of the shake-up, there will be a new, cabinet-style executive board. But there will be no seats on it for portfolios such as education, housing or social services. In their place will be a convenor for reducing council tax, a head of communications, media and public relations and a convenor of elections and campaigns. Another board member will identify policy priorities and ideas, according to confidential documents seen by The Independent on Sunday.

Mr Prendergast will have a board seat, but the taskforce has ensured a Blairite majority, including a barrister, a teacher, a university don and the estranged husband of Jane Kennedy, a local Labour MP.

One councillor, a supporter of Mr Prendergast, has resigned and others are considering legal action against the NEC.

Party officials claim "Liverpool's Labour MPs have backed the proposals". But inquiries by The Independent on Sunday revealed divisions among the five MPs. One said: "The proposals show contempt for the party at local level. They set a dangerous precedent. If party officials start appointing the cabinet in Liverpool, how long before they start trying to appoint the Cabinet in Westminster?" Opposition to the plan has also been privately expressed by ministers and back-benchers with strong roots in local politics.

The taskforce found no evidence of Militant or other hard-Left groups, but felt many councillors saw their roles as "ward advocates or local community leaders". Marie McGiveron, Mr Prendergast's deputy, was singled out for criticism.

Ms McGiveron works for an inner-city community project which runs training programmes and an advice centre. The project receives council funds and the taskforce report implies that "potential conflicts of interest" have arisen. Ms McGiveron will lose her post as deputy leader, and is expected to be de-selected as a councillor.

The taskforce insists that, in future, Labour should not select candidates if their business or employer receives more than 10 per cent of its income from Liverpool city council.

"New Labour doesn't want councillors who are in touch with the realities of life in a deprived inner-city neighbourhood," said one senior Labour figure from Liverpool . "It wants nice middle-class teachers and lawyers. But if the leadership tries to get rid of people like Marie McGiveron they'll do enormous damage to the party."