>From AxisofLogic.com
Europe Blair bans Labour Party delegation from flying to John Kerry's coronation By Julian Coman and Colin Brown Mar 22, 2004, 15:47
March 21, 2004-Tony Blair has ordered Labour ministers and officials not to become embroiled in the US presidential race in an apparent attempt to avoid offending George W Bush.
The Prime Minister's veto on visits to the US means that only one minister, Douglas Alexander, will attend the formal crowning of John Kerry, the Democrats' candidate, in Boston in late July.
Tony Blair is said to back George Bush's re-election bid
Mr Blair's intervention, which will prevent his Labour colleagues from offering their traditional support to the Democrats, has astonished ministers who remember the close links Labour had with Bill Clinton during previous presidential campaigns.
In the past, up to 10 Labour officials and a few MPs have attended the Democrat convention informally, including close friends of the Chancellor and Downing Street aides.
One minister said last night. "It won't work because the Labour Party won't break off its contacts, but obviously it will be more difficult."
Mr Blair's intervention has prompted speculation that he is privately hoping for a Bush victory to avoid being isolated internationally on the war on Iraq.
A senior Labour Party official told the Telegraph: "People in and around Downing Street are secretly hoping that Bush wins, because unless he does, Blair will seem even more isolated that he does already. That's how far the party has gone wrong with Blair." Mr Blair is due to meet President Bush at the G8 summit in America at Sea Island, Georgia, in June.
There are as yet no plans to extend that trip to Washington or to Mr Bush's Texas home, although the pair will have the opportunity for private discussions on the handing over of power in Iraq.
The ban on visits to the Democrat camp is likely to be an embarrasssment to Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, who is a keen follower of American politics and has links to the Kerry camp.
Philip Gould, Mr Blair's chief pollster, Ed Balls, Gordon Brown's chief economic adviser, and Ed Miliband, now a senior Treasury aide, joined the Clinton camp during the former US president's election campaigns.
Mr Brown is a frequent visitor to Cape Cod, a popular holiday destination for senior Democrats, and is friendly with Bob Shrum, a Kerry speechwriter.
Since the war on Iraq, informal relations between Labour and the Democrats have cooled. "The contact and exchanges that there used to be just aren't there any more," said a Labour adviser.
Mr Kerry voted in Congress to authorise President Bush to go to war. Following the coalition's failure to find weapons of mass destruction and the continuing bloodshed in postwar Iraq, Mr Kerry has, however, regularly taken to describing White House foreign policy under President Bush as "inept and reckless".
"He's talking about Bush, not Blair," said one Democrat official. In London, however, the aggressive stance now adopted by Mr Kerry - once described as a "Blair Democrat" - has scotched any possibility of a close pre-election relationship.