THE BRITISH Labour leadership attempted to play down divisions within the party yesterday by refusing to sack Ms Clare Short after her damning outburst that the party was in danger of throwing away victory at the next election because of Mr Tony Blair's style of leadership.
Determined not to further alienate the left wing of the party by asking Ms Short (who is responsible for Overseas Development in the shadow cabinet) to resign, Mr Blair could only issue a terse statement, stressing that she was now happy in her new job despite recently being demoted and that her criticism of his leadership style and policy advisers had been exaggerated.
"As no policy differences were expressed by her, Mr Blair believes the interview has been blown out of all proportion and he regards the matter as closed," the statement said.
Minutes later, Ms Short issued her own statement echoing Mr Blair's sentiment.
"There are no policy differences between us and I strongly support Tony Blair's leadership. I will be campaigning hard for our election victory. The story has been grossly exaggerated and I regard the matter as closed," she insisted.
However, Ms Short pointedly did not retract any of her comments made in the New State& mare interview, in which she effectively questioned Mr Blair's New Labour strategy, complaining of the "dark forces" around him which had turned him into a "macho man."
And she urged Labour Party, members to join her "conspiracy to pressurise Mr Blair into returning to the "fresh, young, principled and decent" person they had elected as party leader.
Although the deputy leader, Mr John Prescott, spent all day playing down the onslaught after frantic consultations with Mr Blair, who is on holiday in Tuscany, he was forced to admit that Ms Short's comments had damaged the party.
"It does mean that she is giving a great deal of ammunition to the Tory party and as someone who is concerned to see that the Labour party wins the next election I can't be happy about that," he said.
Eager to score political points, the Tory Party chairman, Dr Brian Mawhinney, immediately seized upon Ms Short's comments, claiming they confirmed the Tory's current campaign slogan that New Labour is dangerous.
"The shadow cabinet is split from top to bottom between those who want to tell the truth about Mr Blair's dangerous policies and the dark forces who want to lie about them. We said new Labour was dangerous and Clare Short has confirmed that out of her own mouth. We congratulate her for her admirable honesty," he said.