The Road to the Manifesto exercise will be voted on at the October party conference

The "Road to the Manifesto" exercise will be voted on at the October party conference. The Labour leadership is determined to defend it on the grounds that it is widening democracy.However, some on the left believe the reforms being raised by Mr Sawyer may be used further to isolate the left wing. That is why they are now pushing for a more effective backbench body. They want a new body to represent their views to the leadership, rather than allow the leadership to manipulate them. Their opportunity to demand the change came last week after a consultation letter was sent to MPs by Tom Sawyer, Labour's general secretary, announcing that four task forces were being set up to reform party machinery in preparation for government.Mr Sawyer said the task forces would examine: the national executive committee; the links between the leadership and the party in power; widening democracy to involve all members in consideration of policy; and building a mass membership.In his letter, Mr Sawyer said: "The NEC believes that this work is of the utmost importance in our preparation for government and believes that we need to use all the experience that is available to use, including learning from our own past."Behind the consultation is a far-reaching proposal to rob the NEC of much of its policy- making powers, and return it to its original role as a management body, dealing in party administration.Tony Blair, the Labour leader, has almost absolute control of the NEC but, in government, the leadership is acutely aware that it could become a focus for policy battles.Mr Blair is determined that a modern Labour government should keep those battles inside Cabinet, once the policy has been agreed through the wider membership.The first step towards reducing the power of the NEC over the framing of the manifesto is the consultation exercise seeking the approval of the whole party for its policy platform. The growing dissatisfaction with the way the Parliamentary Labour Party is being run was intensified last week by the manouevres to scrap the Shadow Cabinet elections before the general election. Some Labour backbenchers believe that a 1922-style body would allow them more freedom to express unrest.

The bickering inside the Labour Party has led to demands by some left- wing MPs for a Tory 1922-style committee to represent backbench opinion. "He said, to show the party is not split down the middle, we would not give the figures out, so we didn't disclose them." In the event, the figures did leak out.Now that Sir George's threat to "blackmail" the local party was known, said the senior party member, it was unlikely he would win a vote of confidence if it were called tomorrow: anger about his attitude was running high.. disaster if we are not careful," said the official, who was at Friday's meeting.Once the vote was cast, Mr Simpson tried to prevent the figures becoming public. said: 'Look, we are in danger of turning what is a difference of opinion into a ... A Reigate constituency official said that in November, "George had been saying should he be de-selected he would reconsider his position and letting it be known, privately, that meant the Chiltern Hundreds".Central Office heard of his stance and growing hostility towards him.A senior Reigate Tory said that since November Brian Mawhinney, the Conservative Party chairman, had been trying to persuade the executive to take its time and not to rush into anything but that "somehow it slipped through and the meeting was arranged for the middle of May".The senior Reigate Tory blamed the local chairman, Michael Steele, for "political naivety" for allowing some activists to press for a vote now, a long way out from the general election and with sufficient time for there to be a by-election, which on present form the Government could well lose".Despite that, and a plea by David Simpson, the Conservatives' South East Area agent, at Friday's meeting that they should be too hasty, the executive voted to call a meeting to decide Sir George's fate "David Simpson ...

If he loses, Sir George has threatened to apply for the Chiltern Hundreds - parliamentary shorthand for resigning his seat - and to force a by-election. Fearful of the danger that would be posed to the party's small majority, Central Office was arguing as long ago as November for the executive to meet much later this year, so that if Sir George lost, a by-election would be made impracticable by proximity to the general election. His future will be put to a special meeting of the whole Surrey-based association at the end of next month. He then became a haulage worker for a Yorkshire colliery before his death from cancer.Mr Vasili added: "His story was also one of downward social mobility. His family were wealthy and he was sent here to follow in the footsteps of his father, who was a missionary. He intended to return to the Gold Coast but he never made it back Instead he became a forgotten black man in Britain.".

Conservative Central Office pressed the Reigate constituency association to delay for as long as possible a crucial meeting of its executive to decide whether to continue to support Sir George Gardiner as their MP On Friday it voted 15-14 against endorsing him. His athletic talents emerged while he was studying and he became the first man officially to run 100 yards in 10 seconds at the Amateur Athletics Association championships in 1886.Although he was known nationally for his athletic talents, Wharton made his living playing football until 1915 when he played his last game. He got picked because of his ability, but once his career was over he lost out on the recognition a white player of the same achievements would have received."It emerged that Wharton came to England from a wealthy family of missionaries in West Africa, to study at a Methodist college. He went on to play for Sheffield United and Rotherham Town in the late 1880s and 1890s.Despite his achievements he sank into obscurity and was buried in the unmarked grave in a cemetery at Edlington, in South Yorkshire, in 1930 The exact plot was recently located by relatives. It would be marvellous if we could manage to raise the money."The campaign has been set up by Football Unites Racism Divides and Sheffield Youth Services, who hope to raise pounds 1,000 from supporters of the game to honour his memory.Phil Vasili, a social science lecturer researching black footballers in Britain, said: "Like so many other black footballers and athletes, he has just been forgotten. Sheila Leeson, his great-grand niece, who lives beside Rotherham United'sground, said: "It saddens me that he had a pauper's grave because knowing what a great sportsman he was, I feel there should be some recognition.

He impressed the club with his astonishing speed - he became the first man officially to run 100 yards in 10 seconds - but was actually signed to play in goal for the FA Cup. The team, which was the first to pay its players against the strict amateur laws of the day, reached the semi-finals of the competition though Wharton did not play for them again. "We need to recognise them as a common threat that has been ignored at great cost for too long and to build the global solidarity to confront them.". A campaign has been launched to honour the memory of the world's first professional black footballer, who is buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. Arthur Wharton was spotted in 1886 by Preston North End when the club was gathering pace as a force in British football. All bacteria possess an inherent flexibility to evolve genes that render them resistant to antibiotics. But because they have been used by too many people to treat the wrong kind of infection, that resistance has speeded up."The implications are awesome," says the report. "Drugs that cost tens of millions of dollars to produce and take perhaps 10 years to reach the market have only a limited lifespan in which they are effective.