Secret meeting may pave way for Brown premiership

A SECRET dinner between two leading Labour politicians paved the way for Tony Blair's premiership.

Now party history appears to be repeating itself with reports that another secret restaurant meeting has laid the foundations for Gordon Brown's succession.

What has been dubbed the "Loch Fyne accord" is being compared with the infamous "Granita pact".

The New Labour Government has been defined and driven by the unique partnership between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, Mr Brown.

But the relationship between the two men has also proved difficult and sometimes destructive.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott admitted there had been a "pretty serious breakdown of relations in the early days" in his explosive interview with The Times on Saturday.

In some quarters including large sections of the Parliamentary Labour Party almost every Government action has come to be viewed through the prism of that partnership.

The 1994 Granita supper, held days after former leader John Smith's death, lies at the heart of the ongoing battle between the Blairites and Brownies.

Mr Blair has repeatedly denied doing a deal to eventually hand his friend the leadership in return for standing aside in the contest to succeed Mr Smith.

However, anonymous supporters of the Chancellor insist an understanding was reached and he has always declined to deny it.

What is certain is that until Mr Smith's fatal heart attack, Mr Brown appeared a more senior figure than his fellow moderniser.

Resentment at being outmanoeuvred over the leadership has been blamed for tensions between the two towering figures at the heart of Government.

Disputes remained largely hidden until late last year when Mr Brown publicly questioned the PM's decision not to give him a place on Labour's ruling National Executive Committee.

Mr Prescott is credited with resolving that situation by "bashing their heads together" over a dinner at his Admiralty Arch residence.

However, that meeting produced new reports of a deal, with suggestions that Mr Blair could stand down in favour of Mr Brown at the time of the annual party conference in the autumn.

Speculation about the PM's future has hit new heights after Mr Prescott's disclosure that Cabinet colleagues are jockeying for position in expectation of a leadership contest.

Now that interview has been put in new context by reports of the DPM's secret meeting with the Chancellor at the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar last Sunday.

The pair are said to have spent 90 minutes in the back of a ministerial Jaguar discussing a "peaceful succession". For a party steeped in mythology, the event provides a suitable symbolic backdrop for an encounter that may come to be seen as having ushered in a new era of Labour Partyhistory.