Union boss: we'll set up own party

A fresh round of infighting between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown was threatened today after a union boss gave the Prime Minister a three-year deadline to leave Downing Street.

In a move that infuriated Blairites, Mr Curran said that unions could field candidates in up to 300 seats if No10 refused union demands to renationalise the railways, restore the right to secondary strike action and raise the minimum wage.

He said that unless the Government changed tack within the next three years they would, "have to look for a political partner that would advance the interests of people we represent. It really is as simple as that".

"Mid-way through a third term, we would say things have got to change," Mr Curran said.

The deadline was immediately interpreted by Mr Blair's supporters as a final deadline for the Prime Minister to hand over power to Mr Brown. One Blair ally retorted: "No one is going to give in to political blackmail like this.

"Gordon really needs to have a word with Kevin because he's going too far."

Mr Curran sparked the most recent row between the Blair and Brown camps this month after he called for the Prime Minister to be replaced.

Today he went further, raising for the first time the idea that unions could put up their own candidates in safe Labour seats across the land.

"Just imagine if a disaffected, disengaged trade union movement decided to identify independent candidates. What if we said we are going to concentrate on 300 seats with independent candidates?

"The difference we would make in national politics would be enormous," he said. The GMB leader is one of the "big four" union bosses, along with counterparts at the T&G, Amicus and Unison, who all prefer the Chancellor's approach to that of Mr Blair.

Mr Curran dismissed new Labour as a "clique" which took the party away from its traditional roots and allowed a small group of advisers to determine Government policy. Unions hailed some advances after last weekend's party policy forum agreement on workers' rights. The agreement included eight more days statutory holidays and protection for striking workers to increase from eight to 12 weeks.

But although unions seized on the deal, ministers privately briefed that the proposals were marginal and insisted that they had not caved in to much bigger demands.

Union leaders were furious that Mr Blair had watered down the EU constitution's moves to restore the right to secondary picketing.

The Chancellor's allies have made clear that Mr Curran's views are his own and have in no way been instigated or co-ordinated by the Treasury. But some Brownite MPs were furious at Mr Blair's declaration last week that he intended to stay in power until at least 2009. The Prime Minister said that he wanted to "see through" a raft of five-year plans to reform Britain's public services.