Labour to learn the lesson of Clinton

TONY BLAIR, the Labour spokesman on home affairs, is planning to toughen Labour's image on law and order as one of the first lessons to be learned from the Democrats' victory in the US presidential election.

Mr Blair and Gordon Brown, party spokesman on the economy, flew to Washington yesterday for a conference with aides to the Clinton campaign. They are leading advocates of the campaign to reform Labour's electoral appeal in time for the next election. But their campaign is being resisted by some on the left of the party, who suspect the reformers want to ditch some Labour principles.

Clinton aides will brief John Smith and the Labour leader's committee, including John Prescott, a leading sceptic about reform, at a meeting in Westminster on Friday.

Mr Smith's aides yesterday denied reports of a damaging rift in the Shadow Cabinet, and stressed that the party's principles were not at risk. 'It is not about becoming the Democrat Party. It is about learning from the Democrats what could be useful to us here,' a leadership source said.

'We would be foolish not to look at their election and see where we could benefit. That does not mean we have to adopt their policies. What we need to do is see which of these things we can legitimately take on board. John Smith, the leader's committee and the National Executive are united in the view that we will not win the next election by one last heave, by waiting for the Tories to make a mess of it. The Tories will call the election when it is best for them. We have got to prepare the ground so that people will say it is perfectly safe, sensible and attractive to vote Labour.'

Mr Blair believes Mr Clinton's campaign was able to defuse fears on law and order by taking a tough stance on the issue. That was necessary after the successful smear campaign run by the Republicans against Michael Dukakis - the Democrat contender - in the 1988 presidential campaign over the paroling of Willie Horton, a murderer who carried out a stabbing and a rape after being released from prison.

Mr Blair is planning to outline his thinking on curbing crime, emphasising in a speech that young offenders and their parents should be more responsible for their actions. He is considering more 'short sharp shock' tactics for dealing with young offenders, including advocating the earlier use by courts of attendance orders on young people.

Mr Blair will not be following the US president-elect in advocating the death penalty, which, as a governor, Mr Clinton supported. But other 'safe' Democrat policies, particularly on the economy, would dismay Labour stalwarts.

Roy Hattersley, the former deputy leader of the party, wrote in the Guardian during the presidential campaign that the Democrat leadership had 'tailor-made most of its manifesto to the financial prejudices of middle America'. The Clinton manifesto included a form of 'workfare', requiring the long-term unemployed to work for their welfare benefits.

Mr Hattersley wrote: 'Parties which accept their opponents' rhetoric, if only to refute it, are in deep ideological trouble. The Democrats' platform has made that concession in abundance.'