BARONESS Barbara Castle last night conceded that she did not expect to win the contentious vote on pensions policy, after the most heated debate of Labour's conference week.
The final result of the conference vote will be announced later this morning, but there was strong speculation that it could prove uncomfortably close for the leadership, although a defeat was not likely.
As the conference basked in the reflected glory of Mr Tony Blair's big speech on Tuesday - and fresh allegations of Tory sleaze in the row over Mr Neil Hamilton MP and the lobbyist, Mr Ian Greer, dominated the headlines - it was apparent that the party would not, inflict a damaging defeat upon its leader.
Dame Barbara, one of Labour's great survivors who turns 86 on Sunday, had made an impassioned plea to restore the link between, pensions and average earnings. "Battling Barbara" told the platform she feared that, without "a proper meeting, of minds the proposed review would lead to "means testing" and open the way to an attack "on the fundamental principles of the welfare state".
Mr Tony Blair joined in the standing ovations which greeted the veteran politician to the podium and saw, her off it. But there was some agitation when it became clear that there would be a long wait for the result.
The stage had been set for a piquant battle between the party's grandest dame and Ms Harriet Harman, who insists the universal principle will not benefit the most needy pensioners. And the former minister, who has been in politics longer than Mr Blair has been alive, accused Ms Harman of "dreaming up figures from the top of her head."
But while the baroness author of In Place of Strife, an earlier Labour attempt to modern was determined to have her day out, she had already lost critical support before yesterday's debate got under way. The pensioners'
Mr Jack Jones, and his old union, the Transport and General Workers, threw their weight behind the leadership.
The Transport and General Workers Union leader, Mr Bill Morris, said the promised review would give pensioners a crucial voice in government. And he particularly welcomed the fact that its remit would go beyond the specific issue of earnings related pensions, and address the worrying's issue of care costs for the elderly. He said there "is a case for universality but that's for the review".
Ms Harman said: "Our priority is the poorest pensioners. Of course, we want all pensioners to have a fair deal. But we make promises we can't keep."
Mr David Blunkett, Labour's shadow Education and Employment Secretary, yesterday announced plans for a national force of "millennium volunteers".
He told the conference: "Young people are not our problem, but our solution for the new millennium." He said he wanted to recruit 100,000 of them by the year 2000, for six months, giving them "the chance to be rewarded and to be valued, the chance to be part of our society, to identify and be welcomed, rather than rejected." The programme would enable young people over 18 to work with disabled people, and those in hospital.
Mr Blunkett also confirmed Labour's plans for "new literacy's summer schools" to help youngsters falling behind, as part of the party's target to enable every child to reach his or her chronological reading age over the next 10 years.
. The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, has endorsed Mr Tony Blair's warning that the political process in Northern Ireland will continue, with or without Sinn Fein.
In Blackpool to address a fringe meeting, Mr Trimble said: "I welcome Mr Blair's assurance that, if Sinn Fein are unable to deliver the peace we all need, the process will proceed in their absence.
But Sinn Fein's Mr Francie Molloy, also in Blackpool, said Mr Blair should that "the that there would nob have been a peace process but for the leadership of Sinn Fein.
Asked if it betokened his readiness to work with a Labour government, Mr Trimble told The Irish Times his party would work with whichever party was in power: We are a regional party, and don't expect to be in government ourselves."
Mr Trimble was addressing a meeting sponsored by the New Statesman and attended by the Minister of State for the Marine, Mr Eamon Gilmore.