Furious Labour rebels are claiming that Gordon Brown is imposing 'kiss ass' discipline on dissidents tonight with a new ruling to bar anyone who has voted against the government in the past 12 months from vacancies on the select committees. The row which will go to the meeting behind closed doors of the Parliamentary Labour Party tonight threatens to upset the lift Brown has enjoyed since Labour's unexpected Glenrothes by-election victory.
The MPs were furious to discover that Brown's recently appointed chief whip, Nick Brown - no relation but one of Gordon's most loyal lieutenants - is planning to introduce a new rule to crack down on the dissidents.
He is warning that when a vacancy arises on a select committee, he will not recommend any Labour MP who has voted against the Government in the past year. It will not affect current members which is just as well, because those who have voted against the Government in the past 12 months include Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Home Affairs committee and a host of other Labour backbench grandees, who are anything but the 'usual suspects' or hardcore rebels.
The website www.revolts.co.uk reckons there are 107 Labour MPs who have voted against Brown's government since he came to power last year in 95 rebellions - equalling the total in 2005-6 when Blair was at his most unpopular with his own side.
It will bar all the 36 MPs who voted against the Government's ill-fated plans for 42-day pre-charge detention on 11 June including Michael Meacher, the former environment minister, Kate Hoey, the former sports minister, and Frank Dobson, the ex-health secretary.
Also caught by the one-year ban are Chris Mullin, the former foreign minister for Africa, and Glenda Jackson, the former Transport Minister. It would also apply to Jon Cruddas, a former deputy leadership candidate, who voted against the removal of the right to strike for prison officers, and former Home Office minister Fiona MacTaggart, and even Gordon's old pal, Geoffrey Robinson.
lan Simpson, a self-confessed recidivist rebel MP, told friends: "This is kiss-ass democracy. In a week in which Barack Obama has delivered the uplifting message that 'we can', the two Browns in Downing Street are saying 'No you can't'. As the Americans say, you can kiss my ass'."
The changes to the select committees are due to be discussed tonight at the PLP when Harriet Harman, the deputy leader, is due to speak. But the rebels don't expect to be able to force a change of policy on Brown or his chief whip.
The new crackdown on dissidents was approved at a private meeting last Wednesday between Brown, the chief whip, Harman and the officers of the PLP - the shop stewards of the Labour backbench - including Tony Lloyd, the PLP chair, and Ann Cryer, another of the rebels.
Any pretence of the independence of the select committees has long gone, but even some of the hardened dissidents were surprised by the minutes of that meeting. The Mole hears that they agreed changes to the membership of four committees including a new Energy and Climate Change Committee, whose chairman, they agreed, will be Elliot Morley.
No-one with an interest in the subject will be opposed to Comrade Morley taking the chair - he is a former environment minister with strong 'green' credentials - but aren't the members of the committee supposed to decide who should be the chair?
THE MOLE: REBEL ROW
FIRST POSTED NOVEMBER 10, 2008
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