TONY Blair is backing the imposition of an all-women Labour shortlist for Blaenau Gwent.

The Prime Minister - speaking exclusively to the Argus yesterday as he travelled to Gwent to launch his public consultation on government policy - waded into the row over the controversial system being used to replace retiring MP Llew Smith.

The constituency party is boycotting the selection process and Blaenau Gwent AM Peter Law could stand as an independent against his own party's candidate.

Mr Blair said: "I understand people's concerns, I actually started off opposed to the use of all-women shortlists, I became a convert once we saw the results of it.

"There was a transformation of the Labour party and therefore parliament with the number of women increasing dramatically.

"It has made parliament better, it has given us a lot of excellent MPs. "The truth is only four out of forty Welsh MPs are women and in the end it is nothing to do with right or left - it is to do with fairness."

Mr Blair also said that the £1.8 billion miners compensation scheme - the subject of a high-profile campaign by the Argus - demonstrated his government's commitment to its heartlands in Gwent.

He said: "The miners compensation scheme is one of the things this government can be proud of and I really do not believe it is something the Conservatives would never have done.

"When people say we have been ignoring our own heartlands they should remember this has been a £1.8 billion programme, the largest compensation scheme in the world in history."