Katwala: third term warning

Labour needs to win the next general election "in the right way" in order to secure momentum in the third term, the government has been warned.

In an interview with ePolitix.com Sunder Katwala, general secretary designate of the Fabian Society, said the recent loss in Brent East would not damage Tony Blair's chances of winning a third term.

But he stressed that renewal was necessary if the party was to make a success of a third successive election victory.

"It's six years in, it's the mid-term of a second term and there is a perception that the government has lost the domestic policy agenda and what we saw in Brent East was mid-term blues," he said.

"Now if the government doesn't renew itself that won't mean that it won't win the next election. It could possibly win the next election, it remains strong in most opinion polls.

"It could win defensively, it could talk about IDS as prime minister, it could talk about Tory tax cuts and win quite negatively. But then you won't have government with momentum. Labour needs to do more than win the next election.

"It needs to win in the right way if it wants to be a success in government."

Katwala also warned that ministers could no longer rely upon targets to prove they were meeting their public sector pledges.

"Targets have achieved some very good things, particularly in primary education - but they have run out of road now because people don't believe the results, they think targets are fiddled," argued Katwala

"And the whole issue of spin and chasing every headline and thinking very short-term has now damaged the government quite a lot.

"So renewal will mean doing things differently and changing its approach.

"But if the government is unable to change it will fail."