According to the Independent :
Labour MPs are to be barred from the floor of the Republican Convention for the first time because the US governing party has ruled they are not conservative enough to attend.
A cross-parliamentary delegation of one Labour and one Conservative MP traditionally visits the convention, but only Tory MPs will be given access to the floor in New York next month. Alan Williams, a Labour MP and the chairman of the British-American parliamentary group, said he and his colleagues were "far from pleased" at the development.
In a similar report in the Guardian:
The excluded Alan Williams, a veteran Welsh MP and member of the liaison committee of MPs, said last night that the same problem had occurred four years ago at the previous convention, although a last-minute deal then had given him access to the floor as a member of an all-party British delegation."We are far from pleased," he said. "I find it singularly strange that Labour MPs can be welcomed on the floor of Congress but not at the Republican convention."
In contrast to the previous occasion, he said, "they refused to budge".
"They said they didn't want any politician who wasn't a conservative on the floor of the convention centre."
A Republican party spokesman said no slight had been intended, and that the issue had merely revolved around the need to keep numbers on the floor of the conference down.
Neither the Indie or the Guardian mention that the Democratic Convention delegation was all Labour. According to the Telegraph:
A Tory MP and Democrat supporter, Simon Burns, had applied to join the group but was told he could not. The Labour Party said that the Democrats had called for an all-Labour delegation this year because the Republican Party had invited only Tories to their convention.
Also in the same article:
Meanwhile, senior Tories are angry at being excluded from the trip. While the party is seen as traditionally close to the Republicans, several of its MPs are enthusiastic about the Democrats. Alan Duncan, a friend of Mr Kerry, is said to have offered his campaigning services to defeat Mr Bush.
[Indy/Guardian links via Left Oblique]
