Short hints at return to Labour
Clare Short has hinted at a return to Labour if Gordon Brown succeeds in bringing change to Westminster.
A spokesman for the backbench MP confirmed she is considering taking up the Labour whip if the prime minister meets her demands over the Middle East, health and education.
Ms Short left the Labour group of MPs in October last year after criticising Tony Blair’s “deceit over the Iraq war”.
She had already left the government in protest at the aftermath of the Iraq war, although she failed to join Robin Cook in resigning ahead of the invasion.
The former international development secretary had been an outspoken critic of Mr Blair and called for his resignation. It has long been rumoured she could return to the Labour group under Mr Brown.
Ms Short has already welcomed the prime minister’s decision to abolish the Department for Trade and Industry, which has now been replaced with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight she said the move would bring welcome links between trade and aid.
Ms Short said it built on her own efforts from her time at the Department for International Development (DfID).
“Since then there has been lots of joint working and DfID is always represented at trade negotiations, so it is not an absolute revolution, but it is to acknowledge and recognise joint responsibility, she said.
“It is very good, it will be popular and it will be significant.”
Ms Short said the prime minister had performed a “very good reshuffle”, creating a fresh government with “lots of talent”.
She concluded: “Of course in the cold light of tomorrow and the next day the old problems are still there; the Middle East is burning, Iraq is a problem, but I think it is a very clever reshuffle.”
Much has been made of Mr Brown’s promotion of David Miliband to foreign secretary.
Mr Miliband has expressed scepticism over Iraq and was a noted critic of Israel’s bombing of Lebanon last summer.
He has been joined at the Foreign Office by Lord Malloch-Brown, who has frequently criticised George Bush’s policy in Iraq.
