Prescott says 'bitter' Clarke is damaging the party

Published on Sunday 21 September 2008 22:01

JOHN Prescott clashed with fellow Labour heavyweight Charles Clarke yesterday, accusing the outspoken former home secretary of leading a group of "bitter-ites" who risked destroying the party.

The clash on live TV at the Labour Party conference came after Mr Clarke penned a newspaper article pressing his demand for Gordon Brown to stand down as Prime Minister and attacking the "crippling lethargy" of the government.

Mr Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, who has been urging the party to unite around Mr Brown, said: "The Labour Party always has arguments. It has had the Blairites and the Brownites. Now we've got 'bitter-ites'."

Asked if Mr Clarke was one of the "bitter-ites", he said: "Of course he's bitter. Charles knows that. I mean, Charles and I have been in the same room as Gordon and I've seen this kind of expression of bitterness."

But Mr Clarke replied: "What I get bitter about is people who just listen and watch and get their heads down and say: 'It'll be all right on the night'."

Elsewhere, Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader, said her party remained committed to equality for women and people from black and ethnic-minority communities. She promised new equality laws to strengthen the prohibitions on unequal pay and protect older and disabled people from discrimination. She said this contrasted with fake Tory claims on equality.

She said: "How can anyone believe the Tories when they now say they respect women's rights – when the delegates to next week's Tory conference got in their conference pack not just an invitation to a lap-dancing club, but a discount."

Today, John Hutton, the Business Secretary, will say the UK needs a "renaissance in nuclear power" to protect the country's energy supply and avoid dependence on foreign nations.

Mr Hutton will say that if current trends continue, the UK will be 80 per cent dependent on foreign gas by 2020, as a result of diminishing supplies from the North Sea. He will promise to "put the brakes" on imported gas.