Blair accused of forcing members out of Labour Party

A close ally of Tony Blair has accused him of turning the Labour Party into a "mail order" company with everything dictated from the centre.

Phil Wilson, who was commissioned by Mr Blair to write a report on how to revitalise Labour, has warned him that "heavy-handed" discipline and lack of influence on policy has prompted members who feel "isolated and ignored" to leave the party.

Mr Wilson, who as membership secretary of Mr Blair's Sedgefield constituency party boosted its strength to 2,000 members, said: "There are two kinds of discipline: discipline as a means to an end and discipline as an end in itself. New Labour set out to do the former, and ended up practising the latter. The Labour Party has suffered as a consequence."

Summarising his findings in the Labour modernisers' journal Renewal, he said: "Before the 1997 election the party was seen as important. After the election it was not. The election was won partly because of brilliant and ruthless organisation and it was a mistaken assumption that the Labour Party could be run in the same way when in government."

He added: "In Labour's first term the party machine carried discipline to excess. This can be seen as a heavy-handed response to the internal problems the party suffered from in the past."

Mr Wilson cited the moves by Labour's Millbank headquarters to stop Ken Livingstone becoming Mayor of London and to stop Rhodri Morgan becoming First Minister in Wales, which both ultimately failed. "Labour had become an organisation which did not how how to let go," he said.

Insisting that Mr Blair was not a "control freak", Mr Wilson said: "Belief existed, but it was squeezed into a corner. The quest for consensual and communitarian politics was replaced by a rigid approach to political organisation.

"It was as if the membership should know their place and that was all. There is nothing worse than being a member of a progressive political party in which you are taken for granted."

Members became apathetic and left. Mr Blair's vision of Labour as part of the community was ignored and "replaced by mail order politics, where everything was run from the centre." After 1997, the party's policy-making process was starved of resources and did not fulfill its potential. "It is one of the reasons why members feel isolated and ignored."

In his proposals to Mr Blair, Mr Wilson said the Government must take notice of the party's policies and create a real dialogue in which the leadership does not fear criticism.

He said Labour must become less "inward-looking" and deepen its role in local communities. "This is not about the Labour Party 'taking over' the community, it is about a political party taking seriously its civic responsibilities through voluntary action," he said.

* Labour opened the door to the possible readmission of Ken Livingstone to the party yesterday but warned him that he would have to abide by its rules and would not receive any special treatment. Mr Livingstone, who was expelled by Labour for five years after standing as an independent in the 2000 election for Mayor of London, is campaigning to be the party's official candidate at the next Mayoral contest in 2004.

His bid to win early readmission has created a huge dilemma for the Labour leadership and threatens to split the London Labour Party.

Labour's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) decided yesterday on a fast-track process under which it will have its candidate in place by the end of this year.

The NEC also decided that the Labour candidate will be chosen by either a ballot of all London Labour members or an electoral college made up of members and trade unions. Mr Livingstone believes he would win on either basis. And he will be encouraged by the decision to rule out giving votes in the selection process to London's Labour MPs, MEPs and members of the Greater London Assembly.