Straw vows to curb 'secret unelected state': Labour is drawing up plans for regional bodies to take over quangos' powers. Colin Brown reports

TORY PLACEMEN running unelected bodies are likely to lose their powers under a Labour government, they were warned yesterday by party leaders.

Attacking the spread of the 'secret unelected state', Jack Straw, Labour's spokesman on local government, said that the party was drawing up detailed proposals for the election of the regional authorities who would take over most of the powers of the quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations (Quangos). Bringing quangos under the control of elected councillors would require primary legislation. In the meantime, Tory appointees would be expected to carry out the policy changes introduced by an incoming Labour government. Labour would also open quango members to surcharge for improperly wasting public money.

Mr Straw denied that there would be a 'tit-for-tat' clear-out of Tory appointees, who include former ministers, such as Lord Hayhoe, the former health minister, who is now chairman of a National Health Service hospital trust.

'We are not going to act in the same way as the Tory party,' he said.

However, Mr Straw said that some key figures appointed under the Tories in the past 14 years would be expected to resign if Labour won the election. Many existing quangos will be scrapped and most of the powers of others will be handed to newly created regional authorities. Other quangos could be run by elected councillors appointed by local authorities.

''These days Tory party membership is so low the only way they are maintaining a semblance of members is by offering people places on quangos. It's the last remaining recruiting sergeant for the Tory party.

'I am serious about this. Why else join the local Tory party - to get abused on the doorstep? To have your general, Sir Norman Fowler, announce before the battle that he is going to flee from the field whatever the result. These people are not masochists. But it is worth joining if you get a few thousand quid for a few days' work a month.'

Mr Straw said that one chairman of an education examination body had told him before the last election that he would resign from his post if Labour won.

'I made it clear I would not stand in the way when he ran for the door,' he said. 'Of course, we would look at particular appointments, but there is not going to be a tit-for-tat attitude.'

He added: 'Our policy is to replace appointment by election . . . We are going to consult very widely before the election as to how it should be done.' Mr Straw said the extent of the party political appointments under Baroness Thatcher, the former prime minister, and John Major surpassed anything by previous Labour and Conservative governments. They include housing action trusts, NHS trusts running hospitals, and other non- elected bodies with budgets totalling pounds 55bn.

Michael Meacher, Labour's spokesman on public services, named four public sector chairmen whose companies had donated five-figure sums to the Conservative Party.

They included Sir Nigel Mobbs, chairman of the Department of Trade and Industry panel on deregulation, chairman of Slough Estates, which gave pounds 44,000, and vice-chairman of Kingfisher, which donated pounds 25,000.