BRITAIN: The British Labour Party's general election co-ordinator, Alan Milburn, yesterday dismissed new reports of a damaging rift at the top of the party, rejecting claims that Gordon Brown had been sidelined as "complete and utter nonsense".
Amid growing unhappiness among Labour MPs at the party's campaign tactics, Mr Milburn insisted that the chancellor and his handling of the economy were "absolutely central" to their strategy.
The latest reports centred on claims that Mr Milburn and Tony Blair tried to "hijack" Mr Brown's announcement of an increase in the minimum wage while he was on a visit to China.
The Sunday Times reported hurried arrangements had to be made for simultaneous announcements on Friday by Mr Blair in London and Mr Brown in Edinburgh in order to paper over the row.
Mr Milburn insisted that Mr Brown had been fully involved in the decision.
"The announcement was made on Friday at Gordon's suggestion. We made it [the decision] at a meeting I had with Gordon, with the prime minister, with Ian McCartney and John Prescott."
He flatly denied reports that Mr Brown had been shunted to one side. "That is complete and utter nonsense," he said. "We have now got the strongest economy in Europe so it would be pretty odd if we didn't campaign on the economy and Gordon Brown wasn't part and parcel of it."
His comments are unlikely to reassure Labour MPs who believe Mr Brown, who ran Labour's campaigns in 1997 and 2001, has been marginalised since Mr Milburn was brought back as campaign co-ordinator.
Former foreign secretary Robin Cook called openly at the weekend for the chancellor to be given a more prominent role.
Sir Bill Morris, the former general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union and a close ally of Mr Brown, also said that the campaign should "reaffirm" the Government's economic record. "It would be odd if we didn't remind people what life was like under the Conservatives and, more importantly, the fact they haven't learned any lessons," he said. Meanwhile, supporters of Mr Brown were given a boost by a weekend opinion poll which showed that Labour would double its lead over the Tories if the chancellor was party leader.
The poll, by CommunicateResearch for the Independent on Sunday, put Labour on 41 per cent, seven points ahead of the Conservatives on 34 per cent with the Liberal Democrats on 17 per cent.
However, the poll found that if Mr Brown was Labour leader, the party's support would increase to 46 per cent, a 15-point advantage over the Tories on 31 per cent with the Liberal Democrats on 14 per cent.