LABOUR party officials yesterday flatly denied that the health spokeswoman, Ms Harriet Harman, had offered her resignation in the controversy over her decision to send her son to a selective grammar school. But there was a marked lack of public support for her decision from senior colleagues.
Left wing MPs and union leaders were infuriated by what they saw as a clear breach of official party policy to oppose any form of selection for pupils and to change the whole status of grant maintained schools.
The senior backbencher Mr Gerry Steinberg resigned as chairman of the Labour education committee in disgust at the "hypocritical" decision.
As Tory backbenchers mounted an orchestrated Commons offensive in a set piece debate, the Education Secretary, Mrs Gillian Shephard, claimed that Labour schools policy was in "complete disarray".
Ms Harm an is married to the transport union official Mr Jack Dromey. According to Ms Harman, who has complained to the Press Complaints Commission, their 11 year old son, Joe, was harassed by photographers as he left for school yesterday.
But she steadfastly refused to be drawn into the dispute which completely overshadowed a carefully planned Labour attack in the Commons on the new Nursery Education and Grant Maintained Schools Bill.
The controversy arises from the couple's decision to send their son to St Olave's School in Orpington, Kent, where pupils are picked by interview and entrance exam. It underlined the discomfort at the very top of the Labour party on the issue after the decision by the party leader, Mr Tony Blair, to send his son Euan to the grant maintained London Oratory School. Ms Harman's other son Harry also attends the school.
In the Commons, Mrs Shephard said that "nothing now can hide the basic contradiction and deep division at the heart of Labour education policy"
The Labour education spokesman, Mr David Blunkett, claimed the party was in "total unity" on its policy but refused to offer public backing to Ms Harman. "Every parent in every community, whether they are an MP or not should have the right to exercise a preference for their child to go to the school of their choice," he said.
"That preference should not be blocked by any mechanism that prevents a child entering that school, either on the basis of its prior attainment at the age of 11 or on an interview with its parents. That is why we are against selection and will remain against selection."
. The Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Paddy Ashdown, effectively warned Labour last night that it could not win two general elections and undertake a massive modernisation programme for Britain without the help of his party.
Mr Ashdown said that repairing the damage inflicted on the country by the Tories and preparing Britain for the next century could not be achieved by a single party in the lifetime of one parliament. His call in an interview with PA Broadcasting for "partnership politics" where parties co operated on policies on which they agreed, but stopped short of a pact, received a cautious welcome from the Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair.