Ex-cabinet minister recalls prior Labour manifesto woes

A former cabinet minister has recalled Labour’s previous manifesto woes, including receiving a note telling him: “John Prescott has punched a member of the public.”

Douglas Alexander said the response of the then deputy prime minister to being egged by a protester was the moment things got a “whole lot worse” for the 2001 launch.

Mr Alexander, in light of the leaking of Labour’s draft manifesto for the 2017 general election, joked: “Today it’s worth remembering that when parties make manifesto plans the Gods often laugh.

“Or at least the public often do.”

Mr Alexander lost his Paisley and Renfrewshire South seat at the 2015 general election due to the SNP surge, although he was involved as campaign coordinator in 2001.

He said the events of Wednesday and yesterday reminded him about some of the “past manifesto difficulties I’ve lived through”.

In a series of posts on Twitter, referring to 2001, Mr Alexander said he received a phone call informing him that then prime minister Mr Blair was being “harangued” on the steps of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

He went on: “This was not the broadcast coverage we’d anticipated on manifesto day. It was about to get a whole lot worse.

“I walked into Millbank’s war room. Everyone was watching the TVs – Jack Straw was being slow-handclapped at the Police Federation.

“It was about to get a whole lot worse.

“At our evening planning meeting, Sally Dobson came in and handed me a folded bit of paper.

“It simply said ‘John Prescott has punched a member of the public’. That was all.

“Everyone dashed to those TVs again.”