FORMER Home Secretary Charles Clarke conceded that his outbursts during the recent bout of Labour infighting were not the "most advised".

Mr Clarke effectively conceded that his savage personal attacks on Gordon Brown, which infuriated many Cabinet colleagues, had been unhelpful to the party.

And he acknowledged that people, including himself, had behaved in "not the most best and advised ways".

In a ferocious assault on the Chancellor earlier this month, Mr Clarke branded him a "control freak" with "psychological" issues who was "totally uncollegiate".

This followed a previous attack when he lambasted Mr Brown's behaviour during the leadership crisis as "absolutely stupid".

Fringe

Mr Clarke was challenged about the row during a fringe event hosted by the Fabian Society and the Observer at Labour's Manchester conference.

Referring to the recent "brouhaha", he told delegates: "My preferred position, and I think it is far and away the most desirable, is to have a debate about the leadership when a vacancy arises with the candidates we have then and address those issues."

He added: "That didn't happen, including my own interventions in that last two or three weeks, for the reason that there was a dislocation in what ought to have been the process and led to a state of affairs where people behaved, including myself, probably not in the most best and advised ways when those things arose."

Stable

Mr Clarke continued: "But the fact is that we need a stable position where when the Prime Minister decides to go, but not before then, we as a party accept that position but at that point we then have a proper leadership debate about the situation with the candidates in the frame and so on."

He insisted a policy debate was necessary and predicted it could be conducted in "a reasonably fraternal way".

To applause, he summed up: "We should not discuss the leadership questions until there is a vacancy and at that point we should have a properly organised leadership election campaign in which people express their views in whatever way takes place."

Mr Clarke was flanked by Ed Balls, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, and one of the Chancellor's closet political allies.

Transition

Mr Balls argued that a stable and orderly transition was "far more important" than a specific handover timetable.

He agreed that policy must be debated, but warned; "Don't use the idea of debate in order to try and say the reason we need a debate is because there is actually a fundamental, ideological or factional divide between New Labour and everybody else."

Mr Balls added: "If there is anybody that wants to do that, in my view they do not have the best interests of either the Labour Party or the country at heart."

Constitutional Affairs Minister Harriet Harman, who is bidding for Labour's deputy leadership, said the transition gave party members the first chance to vote on the leadership - and Labour's future direction - for 12 years.

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