The Blair-Brown wars continue

It took the Tory party 15 years to recover from the bad blood created by Margaret Thatcher’s forced resignation. So it is, perhaps, unsurprising that five years on, the bitterness from Tony Blair’s being pushed out of office has not yet subsided.

Phil Collins, who was a speechwriter to Blair, has today written a scathing piece about Tom Watson, the leader of the so-called curry house coup against Blair. Collins accuses Watson of putting the ‘occupation of internal power’ in the party by his faction above the interests of the Labour party.

Watson, who is Labour’s election campaigns coordinator, exerts a huge influence over Labour’s internal processes and candidate selection, which is a particularly controversial issue for the party because of the union link. In recent days, he’s been accused by many of trying to stitch-up the Labour mayoral nomination in Birmingham for his old friend Sion Simon. Watson is also, of course, the man who has led the charge on phone-hacking.