THE BRITISH Labour Party leader, Mr Tony Blair, was last night preparing a crackdown on party dissidents amid signs that Labour could be facing a second summer of discontent.
The Labour chief whip, Mr Donald Dewar, was ready to deliver written warnings to back bench MPs who spoke out over the handling of last week's shadow cabinet elections.
And Mr Blair accused his critics on the party left of forming an "unholy alliance" with the Tory propaganda machine in an attempt to undermine his programme of modernisation.
But even as the leadership was moving to quell the latest bout of internal dissent, there were signs that more MPs were prepared publicly to criticise what they see as Mr Blair's increasingly "autocratic" style.
Ms Lynne Jones (Birmingham Selly Oak) became the latest MP to voice her concern, accusing Mr Blair of adopting a "Thatcherite agenda" and of ignoring the views of his backbenchers.
Mr Dewar is understood to be writing to a number of MPs who "overstepped the mark", accusing the leadership of "strong arm tactics" and "rigging" the poll for the shadow cabinet.
He is said to regard left wingers such as Mr Ken Livingstone, Ms Diane Abbott and Ms Ann Clwyd who failed in her bid to get elected as having breached party rules which forbid MPs from criticising each other publicly.
In an interview with GMTV's programme yesterday, he brusquely dismissed the continued sniping as "noises off" and warned all MPs they were expected to observe party discipline. He said he would not allow "small groups to give the impression that they represent some massive slice of Labour Party opinion when they don't". However, a considerable number of MPs still remain deeply unhappy at the way the elections were handled.
Apart from the claims that people were pressurised into not standing or into backing the leadership's chosen candidates, there is discontent at the way Mr Blair responded to the final results.
Although his "dream team" of the existing shadow cabinet members were all re elected, the top half of the ballot was dominated by left wingers while key Blair allies such as the shadow chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, saw their share of the vote fall sharply.
Yet it was Ms Clare Short, who finished third, who was demoted to overseas development while Mr Chris Smith who opposed Mr Brown's plans to scrap child benefit for the under 16s was removed from the social security brief.
In contrast, modernisers like Mr Andrew Smith and Mr Alistair Darling, who did not even stand in the elections, were given big promotions. Mr Blair will try to redress the balance somewhat next week when he reshuffles his junior spokesmen, with left wingers such as Mr Peter Hain and Mr Ian McCartney in line for promotion.
In an article for the Independent on Sunday he rejected allegation that he had become too dictatorial. "First it was Bambi too weak. Then it was authoritarianism," he said. "The Bambi tag was always ridiculous, so is that of autocracy the Labour Party is more open and democratic than ever before."
He hit back at critics of his modernisation programme accusing them of playing into the hands of the Conservatives.