VETERAN former Blackburn MP Barbara Castle has accused Tony Blair of running Labour in a manner akin to a dictatorship.

The ex-cabinet minister has condemned the opposition leader's plan to put his election manifesto to a rank and file referendum vote of Labour members.

The 85-year-old Baroness Castle spoke out as Mr Blair prepares for a ground-breaking trip to the United States.

Of the referendum vote she said: "It really does remind you a little of an election in a one-party state, because nobody is going to vote for throwing out the whole document, nobody, so effectively there is no choice."

Lady Castle denied on BBC Radio 4 that the Labour left was no longer loyal to Mr Blair, and said any divisions between the leader and them, were nowhere near as deep as the damaging split of the 1980s.

But she warned: "There is unease ... lest he should overemphasise the importance of uniformity.

"You won't get real views and you won't get real interest in politics if everybody says the same thing and, when father says turn, we all turn."

Mr Blair is due to meet President Bill Clinton in the White House during his visit to the US next Thursday and Friday.

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