Memos show Ed Balls’s role in ‘Project Volvo’ plot to oust Tony Blair

Leaked documents provide proof of involvement of Balls and Ed Miliband in plan to prepare Gordon Brown for premiership A stash of leaked internal Labour documents, which provide documentary proof of the roles played by Ed Balls and Ed Miliband in the operation to unseat Tony Blair, has reopened bitter party wounds. Balls, the shadow chancellor, will face renewed pressure over his involvement in unseating Labour’s most popular prime minister after the documents showed he was the key figure in “Project Volvo” to prepare Brown for the premiership. The leaking of the documents to the Daily Telegraph will raise questions about whether a disgruntled former member of the Brown circle has decided to strike at Balls who is rapidly emerging as the key figure in the Labour party as Ed Miliband struggles to assert his authority. One key document, among a raft of internal papers to be published by the Daily Telegraph over the coming days, shows that a meeting to discuss Brown’s leadership bid was held on 19 July 2005, a few months after Blair led the party to its historic third successive election win. The document, which is annotated by Balls, talks of a “GB Transition Storyline” under the heading Leadership Election. It says the key people for this will be Balls, Ed Miliband, the pollster Deborah Mattinson and Spencer Livermore, a former Brown aide. Next to a finance section Balls has written in the figure £5m. Labour sources played down the significance of the leak, depicting it as “ancient history”. Other sources said that it was hardly surprising to discover that Brown camp was making preparations for the post-Blair era after he made clear that the 2005 election would be his last as Labour leader. But the leaked papers provide documentary proof that Balls was the key figure in a highly organised operation to unseat a sitting prime minister. Brown sent Balls and other members of the group a series of memos in the autumn of 2005 highlighting Blair’s weaknesses. “This is a government not presidency,” he wrote. “Restoration of constitution and of trust. Leadership that gets on with the job … Trust depends on proper relationship between executive legislature and civil service, Labour the champion of the constitution … Need to redefine politics from spin/calculation/manoeuvre … No presidentialism.” In one passage, Brown wrote to Balls: “If we are to renew Labour, we will have to be as rigorous and brutal as we were in the creation of new Labour.” In another memo, Brown showed his frustration with Blair who refused to give a clear date for the handover of power. “Politics is about shaping the debate as much as winning the debate itself … Recent weeks have shown how far we have moved backwards since the election … The press now write as if Blair is the only person who could ever win Labour any election. “From untrustworthy Blair v trustworthy Brown it is now reforming Blair v block-on-reform Brown. All his talk of Labour dominating the political landscape from the centre ground is not about re-establishing Labour but a self-promotion about his exceptionalism (and it is not rooted in what is actually happening). “The facts are: two-thirds think Britain is moving in the wrong direction. More than half think we lied over Iraq. Trust in politicians is half what it was 20 years ago.” The documents do also provide a lighter insight into the Brown operation. Mattinson, the group’s pollster, dubbed the campaign to prepare him for the premiership “Project Volvo”. A 31-page document produced to “develop a narrative” for the “Gordon Brown vision” compared him to a family car on the grounds that he was “steadfast” and “robust”. David Cameron, the recently elected Tory leader, was seen by voters as a more exciting “sports car” or “BMW”. Brown’s team were advised to “demonstrate wider interests” focusing on his family, leisure and lifestyle. “Show humour, character, charm,” the document said. “More Richard and Judy opportunities; use Richard and Judy mode at all times.” Labour Tony Blair Ed Miliband Politics past Ed Balls Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 9, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.