AN irritated John Prescott yesterday distanced himself from attempts by Labour party managers to fix the forthcoming elections to the Labour party's National Executive Committee, writes Catherine MacLeod, Chief Political Correspondent.
During a stormy Parliamentary Labour Party meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister forced the Chief Whip Nick Brown to withdraw a slate which the party's fixers had been touting amongst Labour MPs.
The three-person slate - Aberdeen South MP Anne Begg, the leader of the European Socialists Pauline Green, and Ealing Acton and Shepherds Bush MP Clive Soley - offended MPs who claimed it was yet another attempt by the leadership to exercise central control.
A Scottish Labour MP said: ''It is like a loyalty test. If you don't sign it, your name will probably go down in some black book somewhere. It is not on.''
MPs were particularly irritated because some of the forms already had the three names printed upon them and were being circulated by Government Whips.
Instead of Mr Brown's appeal to the PLP being a formality, Mr Prescott angrily told the MPs that neither he nor No10 knew anything about the slate. He forced the issue to be remitted to a later committee.
But an experienced MP said: ''They have taken us for granted. Unless you are prepared to upset the leadership you just go along with them, but make no mistake they are now in the business of political vetting.''
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