Who's backing who: an insider's guide to the rival wings of New Labour

Over wine and canapes at No.11, Gordon Brown is quietly building his own power base. So who is in his inner circle?

AS THE wine flowed at the reception at Number 11 Downing Street, it was time for one Labour backbencher to take leave of his host.

"Lovely party, Gordon," he told the Chancellor of the Exchequer."The Labour Party? It was, wasn't it?" Brown replied

The suggestion that anyone could put so much as a Rizla between Mr Brown and Tony Blair draws loud protests from the spin-doctors. Indeed, such a report in The Independent yesterday - referring to old Labour tones in a welfare policy paper produced by the Chancellor - merited instant rebuttal by Alastair Campbell, the Blair's spokesman, and Charlie Whelan, the Chancellor's man.

There was no question of Mr Brown trying to build a base on the left of the party, they said. While the suggestion that the Chancellor and Prime Minister are at loggerheads would be quite wrong, a certain amount of quiet flesh-pressing has certainly been going on in and around Mr Brown's residence.

The "Iron Chancellor" who stuck to Tory tax and spending plans may not generally be regarded as a left-winger, but he is unobtrusively building up support on that wing.

The reception attended by our friendly MP was not a one-off. There have been other events for backbenchers, a champagne evening for political editors and their wives just a week ago and drinks for Labour peers.

More intriguingly, though, there has also been a series of drinks receptions for party members from each region of the country. Mr Brown would stoutly deny allegations of empire-building, and his spokesman said the parties were held at the request of the party's Millbank headquarters. But it seems he paid for the drinks himself. The exercise - if such it is - is a subtle one, but steadily the "old" wing of the grass-roots Labour Party are being wooed.

There is no suggestion, of course, that the Chancellor is thinking of challenging for the party leadership. If Mr Brown has a game, it must be a long one based on the premise that even the most impregnable leader cannot last forever. But little things keep happening which raise question- marks in the minds of party members.

Trades union leaders report that the Chancellor's attitude to them is commendably warm these days. While there are many political tensions, there is also an open door in Number 11. In fact a TUC delegation will meet Mr Brown today to talk about welfare spending.

The unions have responded in kind. "Gordon has that gut instinct that when people are being screwed they deserve representation. That's not something Blair feels at all, but Gordon comes from that stock," one trade union source said admiringly.

There was a little flurry of diary items earlier this year when Mr Brown turned up at the Transport and General Workers' Union's 75th anni- versary. Mr Blair sent a video offering congratulations, but the Chancellor was there in person and made a speech. He was a trade unionist at heart, he told the assembled company.

The Prime Minister meets the TUC regularly, of course, but the Chancellor is careful in his cultivation of its members.

Within Parliament, the Gordon Brown effect has also been noticeable. Some observers now claim that the Chancellor has an ally in every government department. One of the closest must be Margaret Beckett, President of the Board of Trade. "The DTI is really just a wing of the Treasury these days," one observer claimed.

Harriet Harman, the Social Security Secretary, used to be thought to be closest to Tony Blair, but these days many commentators place her in the Brown "camp". Rumours that she may be demoted in a forthcoming reshuffle may have been fuelled by this supposition.

Nick Brown, the Government Chief Whip, is generally regarded as a good friend of the Chancellor. He was named as a main source for much of the information in a new biography of Gordon Brown, written by the former Independent on Sunday political correspondent Paul Routledge. The book claimed the Chancellor was still bitter at the result of the 1994 succession to John Smith.

The biography revealed that Mr Brown harboured ambitions to run for the leadership himself. But he was out-manoevred by Tony Blair's early campaign and eventually agreed to stand aside - a deal said to be have been sealed at the Granita restaurant in Islington.

At the Department for Education and Employment there is Andrew Smith, who had an office next door to Mr Brown's in the MPs' office block at Number Seven Millbank until about six months before last year's General Election. The Foreign Office minister Doug Henderson is thought to be close to Mr Brown.

In the Scottish Office, Donald Dewar remains friendly with the Chancellor, although most observers say he is too independent to be a full member of anyone's entourage. There are some doubts, too, about the defence minister John Reid, formerly regarded as a friend of the Chancellor's, but recently locked in battle with the Treasury over spending on the armed forces.

Tony Blair still has the wholehearted support of his entire Cabinet, of course. It is just that in some cases that support is more wholehearted than in others. Lord Irvine, the Lord Chancellor, was head of Mr Blair's chambers when he was a trainee barrister and is still regarded as one of his closest confidantes. Likewise Peter Mandelson, the Minister Without Portfolio, who was behind the Prime Minister's leadership campaign and who is loathed by many in the Labour Party as a power behind the throne.

Both Jack Straw and Mo Mowlam are admired by Mr Blair, Straw for his enthusiastic carrying of the "Tough on Crime" torch at the Home Office and Mowlam for her handling of the Northern Ireland brief.

More junior ministers who are well liked by Number 10 include Stephen Byers at education, Alan Milburn and Tessa Jowell at health and Alun Michael at the Home Office.

While both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor see businessmen regularly, some are closer to one than to the other. Sir Colin Marshall, the outgoing president of the Confederation of British Industry, has easy access to Mr Blair as does the British Airways chief Bob Ayling.

Mr Brown is known to admire Gavyn Davies, chief economist at Goldman Sachs and husband of one of his advisers, Sue Nye.

Whether or not Mr Brown is seeking the support of the left, he certainly cannot rely on it. Ken Livingstone wrote: "There seems to be nothing in Gordon's life other than the inexorable rise up the ladder of the Labour aristocracy. In Denis Healey's memorable phrase, there is no hinterland, nothing to fall back on if the grand project fails."