Labour checks the war chest for buoyant Clark

By AUDREY YOUNG and JOHN ARMSTRONG

The Labour Party is readying itself for the possibility of an early election in case the Alliance factions start to seriously damage the Coalition Government.

The Herald understands there have been talks in the past few days about Labour's state of readiness, including the health of party finances.

The party's list committee will also meet this weekend to finalise candidates' rankings.

Prime Minister Helen Clark has begun to tease National for not demanding an early poll: "Please tempt us," she said on Sunday, the day a One News/Colmar Brunton poll showed Labour at 50 per cent and National at 34 per cent.

However, Government sources said the party's preparations were precautionary and that the Prime Minister was still averse to an early election.

Opinion polls showed a clear majority of voters against a snap election.

National leader Bill English said it was "pretty meaningless" to challenge Labour to an early election - but he was ready for one.

"We're ready for an election any time they want to do it."

Helen Clark wanted one, too, he said, but had painted herself into a corner by supporting her Deputy Prime Minister, Jim Anderton.

Because she had insisted that the Alliance position did not threaten the stability of the Coalition, she could not now use that to call an early election.

"Now she is going to have to live day by day with the hypocrisy of the whole arrangement," Mr English said.

"When she says we should tempt her, what she means is she hasn't got a good enough reason and she is hoping someone will give her one."

Today will be the first sitting day there will be two Alliance leaders in Parliament. Mr Anderton was expelled on Saturday from the party he founded and replaced by fellow Cabinet minister Laila Harre.

Mr Anderton will continue to call himself Alliance leader even though he plans to set up and lead a rival party into the election.

Parliament's Speaker, Jonathan Hunt, will recognise Mr Anderton as the "parliamentary leader of the Alliance" because the majority of Alliance MPs - most of whom were also expelled - support him as leader.

Helen Clark was asked yesterday if the setup breached the spirit of the anti-party-hopping law, which forces party-hoppers to resign from Parliament.

"To the best of my knowledge, the Electoral Integrity Act never said that a party wouldn't have internal differences and might not come to a decision about its future which didn't see it coming together," she said.

There was now a tendency to blame electoral systems for what happened within and between parties.

Helen Clark said MMP helped to make hope beat eternal in the breast of small parties but it seemed to crush them once they got into Parliament.