Left-winger Liz Davies said yesterday that she resented moves by Labour officials to ''gag'' rebel members of the party's ruling National Executive Committee.
Ms Davies was one of four members of the Grassroots Alliance voted on to the NEC by party members at the expense of Blairites in September.
But she sees proposed new rules on the conduct of NEC members - to be discussed at the executive's meeting on Tuesday - as a bid to silence the left-wingers.
A leaked memo drawn up by the party's new general secretary, Margaret McDonagh, says NEC members should tell the Labour press office before discussing party business with the media. It also says NEC members should not appear in ''head-to-head'' debates with other party members.
Defenders of the proposed new code of conduct insisted it was not designed to ''gag'' anybody, but simply to avoid the open warfare in party ranks seen in the early 1980s.
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