Clare Short: Backing the PM

Labour has been facing increasing pressure from some backbenchers who say that the government is failing to deliver what its core supporters voted for, including improved public services and assistance to the poorest parts of society.

But Ms Short saids that it was in the interests of the overwhelming majority of people to have good health care, good schools and decent public services.

"To pretend the interests are divided, to pretend that Labour only represents the very marginalised is to say Labour can never succeed and we cannot have policy of social justice that wins the votes of the majority," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"I just feel that is completely wrong - it is a big mistake"

Ms Short said that MPs such as Peter Kilfoyle, the recently resigned minister, were "profoundly wrong" when they demanded big increases in some benefits when the party needed to remain "steady".

She said that the government was right to focus on the poorest pensioners, adding: "We have to have a coalition which unites the interests of the majority to be successful in power."

According to reports, Ms Short discussed her article with Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown before publication.

But it will also come as a much-needed reinforcement for ministers who have been facing criticism from their own backbenchers.

Wales meeting

Ms Short's intervention came as Prime Minister Tony Blair sought to demonstrate the government's commitment to traditional Labour issues by chairing the first joint-committee on the NHS with the health secretary, northern ireland secretary, Welsh First Secretary Rhodri Morgan and Scottish First Minister Donald Dewar.

On Thursday, Mr Blair pre-empted Ms Short's comments by calling on his party not to fall into the "Tory trap" of accepting that "heartland" issues were different to those for the rest of the UK.

But leftwing Labour MP Diane Abbott said that it was "silly" for governments to pretend that there was no such thing as a conflicting interest between different parts of society.

"For instance, take the minimum wage," she told the BBC. "It presents a stark choice for any government.

"Poor people and women want a high minimum wage but Middle England and business does not.

"A government has to choose."