What is most pertinent is that in some areas we're not pleasing our own members

Glenda Jackson

London is likely to be the last political stage Jackson appears on. She is fighting Hampstead & Highgate once more at the general election but will not go for mayor again; nor does she intend to run for the Greater London Assembly next time round.

"Oh yes - I'll be almost 70," she confirms. "I mean, your knees start creaking."

Ever since she arrived at the Commons in 1992 Jackson has proved a disappointment to political journalists.

"I think they thought I was going to quote Shakespeare all the time, or that every speech would be larded with pertinent quotes from great literature or poetry," she says.

But the Oscar-winning actress quickly gained a reputation for being dour rather than dramatic; loyalist, not luvvie. As such she never generated the colourful copy the press gallery hoped for.

"The problem has always been that I know the press too well, so I lack the necessary respect."

Symbolic concerns

Now unshackled from the chains of government office, Jackson can career as off-message as she likes. On several issues of recent controversy this turns out not to be that far, though.

On the monarchy: "My view has always been if they can't modernise, what's the purpose?"

Ken Livingstone: Jackson has joined his mayoral cabinet

Or the government's much-criticised Freedom of Information Bill: "We'll at least have a freedom of information [bill] - we didn't have anything like that before."

And the euro: "We'll have to join. I'm absolutely pro, yes - we can't stay outside."

Is there anything the government has done wrong? "I don't like the vouchers for asylum seekers at all."

Jackson believes that while New Labour has on the whole delivered plenty, "there are symbolic things that I think are causing people concern".

The best example is the government's tiny increase for pensioners last November. "The biggest, I suppose, mistake we made was giving them 75p - which is an insult," she says.

"I tell my pensioners to send it back. If my mother was alive and they'd given her 75p that's precisely what she would have done."

Can't please everybody

In the drive to please Middle England and the party's heartlands simultaneously, Jackson acknowedges that "you can't please everybody".

"But what is most pertinent is that in some areas we're not pleasing our own members."

She believes vigorous questioning of the government from within Labour is not only healthy; it can also serve to head off serious internal divisions.

I cannot see that not being in the party is going to be a hindrance to Ken Livingstone in delivering for London, and that has to be his primary concern

Glenda Jackson

"I think that that criticism in many ways can be helpful," she says, citing in evidence Labour's rolling policy forums and consultation exercises in advance of drawing up the next manifesto.

But still more needs to be done to ensure grassroots opinion has a real influence: "Where there needs to possibly be clearer lines of communication is in going back to the membership for the response to all those workshops and consultations."

New Labour also needs to examine how better to get its message across to its core supporters.

"Something that I find puzzling is why the sort of major radical changes that we've made - the kind of redistribution of money, the introduction of the minimum wage, the whole thrust of taking children out of poverty, of getting people out of the benefits trap and into work - I don't know why that hasn't taken a bigger hold within the party membership.

"I find it surprising given the amount of material that comes out that we haven't been better at disseminating that information."

Frank bounces back

Jackson's main task now is making the arguments for funding from the London mayoral budget for strategies to tackle homelessness in the capital.

She will be working closely with one of her former rivals for Labour's mayoral nomination. What of the other rival who won that contest but did so disastrously at the election?

Jackson has been in contact with Frank Dobson since then: "Frank bounces back and he seems okay."

Frank Dobson: No return to government?

But she doesn't expect to see the former health secretary now being given another government job.

"I can't honestly see that there will be any change to the government because we're fighting an election next May.

"So why would Tony Blair change anything?"

Another loose thread hanging from Labour's traumatic mayoral experience is Ken Livingstone's bid to be readmitted to the party. Jackson believes the issue is of no concern to those the mayor is keenest to impress: London's voters.

"As far as delivering for London is concerned I think it's utterly irrelevant," she says. "I cannot see that not being in the party is going to be a hindrance to him in delivering for London, and that has to be his primary concern."

But it may be a different matter for the party that threw him out once he stood against it.

"If he believes that it might be a hindrance in ensuring that a Labour government is returned next May, that it might have a serious impact in Labour MPs keeping their seats, then that's clearly something he should be putting to the party management."

"If it was thought that letting him back in before the five-year term would help build bridges with those party members who were seriously disaffected with the total cock-up we made of the selection process, then fair enough."