Is Meacher's Ego Ready for Touchdown?

Gordon Brown’s chances of facing a left-wing leadership challenge rose last night after it emerged that his two declared challengers are pooling resources to try to gain enough support to enter the contest.

John McDonnell, a backbencher, and Michael Meacher, a former Environment Minister, are preparing to announce a deal that would mean that the candidate with less support drops out, backing the other.

Challengers for the Labour leadership must secure the support of 44 MPs to get on the ballot paper. But last night The Times discovered there are tensions between the two candidates, with Mr McDonnell saying that a deal had been struck but Mr Meacher saying the details still had to be worked out.

Mr McDonnell said: “For the last three months we have been trying to get Michael Meacher to sit down and say that whoever has the highest number of MPs goes forward. Yesterday we sat him down and he agreed to that. But we’ve been here before and we hope he adheres to the deal.”

By contrast, Mr Meacher said that there was still some way to go before the final details were ironed out. “We are moving towards what I hope will be an agreement. I think it’s jumping the gun to say there is an agreement at the moment though. I do think we will reach an agreement along those lines. The important thing is there is a single centre-left candidate.”