Revealed:Poverty and Fatherless Past That Shaped the 'Co-Pm' ; at Labour's Conference Next Week One Man Will Be in the Eye of the Storm

Evening Standard - London › September 24, 2004

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Summary

AS LABOUR prepares to gather in Brighton next week for its annual conference, it is divided as never before about the future of the party and the succession after Tony Blair. At the heart of the drama is a man who has just been catapulted back into the front line of Labour's internal wars - and whose determination to defeat his rivals and possibly seize the leadership crown himself is undiminished by a spell in self-imposed exile.

Openly referred to in Labour circles as the "co-Prime Minister", Alan Milburn has been give the task of running the next general election campaign and rivalling Gordon Brown's power base.

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Extract

Revealed:Poverty and Fatherless Past That Shaped the 'Co-Pm' ; at Labour's Conference Next Week One Man Will Be in the Eye of the Storm

Now we can reveal the full extent of the childhood poverty and impact of his illegitimacy that has made him one of the most driven men in politics.

That his early life in a remote village in County Durham was tough is known at Westminster, but the extent to which it still haunts and drives him is a secret he chooses to share with very few people.

When the BBC set out to find a political figure to take the place of a single mother on Merseyside - a role eventually taken by Michael...

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