Category Archives: Alistair Darling

Alistair Darling has wasted no time in capitalising on Gordon Brown’s impotence in the wake of Wednesday’s attempted coup.

The Chancellor has briefed both the Times and the Guardian that Britain faces the “toughest spending cuts for 20 years” if Labour continues in office.

Darling – supported, no doubt, by Peter Mandelson – clearly recognises that the electorate won’t buy the Prime Minister’s line that “investment” can continue simultaneously with “halving the deficit”; indeed, the only individual who still appears to accept that fantasy is the PM himself. 

Such a very public disavowal by Darling of the Prime Minister’s stance would, as the Times observes, have been unthinkable a few weeks ago.  His new boldness simply serves to underscore the extent to which Brown is now, post-putsch, in thrall to the cabinet members who lent him their muted support earlier this week.

Labour’s big continuing problem, however, is the very fact that Brown is still there and it’s too late to get rid of him.  Expressions of new realism from Mandelson, Darling and others will be of no electoral advantage to a party whose leader – apparently now about to ask voters for a “full second term” – continues to inhabit a political la-la land. 

It would seem that Alistair Darling, sick of being kicked around by Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson, has decided to make his presence felt.

Only a month ago, it was confidently predicted that Darling would be given the chop, or at least demoted, after the Euro election, to make way for Brown’s Mini-me, Ed Balls; indeed, the Prime Minister was already referring to him in the past tense.   However, after the resignations of Hazel Blears and James Purnell, together with a gaggle of junior ministers, cabinet mathematics made it impossible for Darling to be moved.

Then, only three short days ago, Lord Mandelson loftily announced on the Today programme that Darling had “made the judgment” that there would be no comprehensive spending review until after the general election, which prompted Tory criticism that the Prime Minister was engaging in a “relaunch without a price tag”.

Now Darling has given an interview to the Independent in which he makes it clear that he has made no such judgment at all:

Mr Darling insists the uncertain economic position means he cannot decide now whether to go ahead with the scheduled comprehensive spending review (CSR). He will announce his decision in his pre-Budget report, due in November. “To do detailed allocations running up to 2013-14 at the moment, with all the uncertainty, just does not make any sense,” he says.

He promises that, one way or the other, Labour will make its spending priorities clear before the election, in an attempt to flush out the Tories. One option might be a mini-CSR. Another is to announce before the election which budgets would be ring-fenced, challenging the Tories to do the same.

Darling is becoming increasingly assertive in cabinet.  He pointedly refused to rule out spending cuts at a time when the Prime Minister was identifying “Tory cuts v. Labour investment” as the dividing line between the principal parties.  Now the PM has apparently decided to follow Darling’s line and has admitted that there will have to be cuts in public spending, even if Labour wins the next general election, which leaves him in the unfortunate position of having to find a new dividing line.  Game to Darling.

In taking on Mandelson,  Darling is playing a much more dangerous game.  Over the past few weeks, Mandelson has made it reasonably plain that he is effectively in charge; Brown has acknowledged his former adversary’s importance by massively increasing his departmental responsibilities, as well as conferring on him a panoply of ludicrously grandiose titles.

In his Indy interview, however, Darling has as good as told Mandelson to take a hike.  He knows that his position is secure, at least for the time being, so he can afford to do so.

The prospect of an escalating feud between Darling and the Lord High Panjandrum must be causing a significant degree of discomfort to Gordon Brown, but, given his present weakened position, there would appear to be little he can do about it, at least in the short term.

Peter Mandelson has today  made clear beyond doubt who runs the country.  The answer, as if you didn’t already know, is: Peter Mandelson, of course. 

Ahead of Gordon Brown’s umpteenth relaunch this afternoon (more relaunches than the Rhosneigr lifeboat, as one wag put it), Mandelson has unequivocally decreed that:

• No spending plans will be set out before the general election (got that, Alistair?); and
• “We have to live within our means as a Government” (taken that on board, Gordon?).

And finally, as if to underline the fact that the Blairites are back in charge, the deployment of the killer phrase: 

“Being fiscally responsible is an important principle of New Labour.”

Hear that?  Not “Labour”.  New Labour. 

And if you don’t like that, Gordon, just think:  who else is there you can trust, or who even has the inclination, to try to save your bacon?