DISAGREEMENTS FOR WILSON

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31084, 13 June 1966, Page 13

DISAGREEMENTS FOR WILSON

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, June 12. Mr Wilson will face a series of disagreements within the Labour Party when Parliament resumes tomorrow after its Whitsun break. He is determined to take quick action to control critics of his domestic and overseas policies, who could in the long-term undermine his authority as party leader. This new potential threat from some of his own supporters, both Left-wing and Right-wing, has emerged less than three months after Labour strengthened its precarious hold on power by winning a 97-seat House of Commons majority in the general elections. While there is no likelihood of any immediate harm to Mr

I Wilson’s standing, commentators have branded this as his Government’s worst patch since it first took office in 1964 after 13 years of opposition. Mr Wilson is planning to make a rare appearance at Wednesday’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party to warn the rebels —many of them newly-elected members of Parliament—that authority rests with the Cabinet, and not in any party caucus. Long-standing Left-wing discontent at Britain's moral backing for United States policies in Vietnam has been reinforced by Righ-wing critics, who want big cuts in the nation's military commitments east of Suez. Other Labour backbenchers still reflect the party’s past divisions over possible British membership of the Common Market The merchant seamen's

strike has caused fresh resentment of many Left-wing and trade union labour M.P.s at the administration’s wage restraint policy—while others are openly critical of the controversial ne - payroll tax on employers. None of these issues is likely to cause Mr Wilson more than temporary embarrassment at present, but he is known to be conscious of the special dangers of a full fiveyear term of office ahead with a big majority.

One of his first moves after the election was to propose creation of more all-party specialist committees in the lower chamber to study big domestic issues such as education and city planning. This would help throw up new ideas—and also keep his restive backbenchers busily occupied. But so far there has been no sign of these committees being formed.

Outside Parliament, Mr Wilson has the more personal problem of changing his public image from that of an astute politician ready to seize on any popular vote-win-ing gesture, to that of a more dignified national leader. His closest advisers have urged him to abandon his highly publicised pre-election series of meetings with television personalities and pop music groups such as the Beatles.

But although he is now making a conscious effort to break away from what his Conservative Party opponents labelled “Wilson gimmickry,” it may take some time before he achieves this. He still has a number of pre-election promises to fulfil including the reopening of the Cavern Club, home of the Beatles, in Liverpool, where the Prime Minister has his own constituency.