WELSH Labour might be in a stronger position if it had not distanced itself so far from New Labour, Lord Mandelson said today.

He said the Welsh wing of the party did well at the general election, but it had to examine why it was fighting from a "lower base’’ than other parts of the UK.

Under Rhodri Morgan's slogan of "clear red water’’, Welsh Labour firmly rejected Blairite innovations such as foundation hospitals and academy schools.

Former first minister Mr Morgan delivered the famous phrase in the run-up to the 2003 Assembly election, when Labour won a slim majority.

But it has since had to rely on a coalition with Plaid Cymru to hold on to power in Cardiff Bay as its share of the vote declined in Wales.

Lord Mandelson, who published his memoirs this week, told BBC Radio Wales: "What all my Welsh Labour Party friends tell me is that perhaps the position of the Welsh Labour Party during the last 13 years might have been stronger at points if it had embraced more of what New Labour was doing in England and other parts of the country.

"I think Wales did very well in fighting back at the last election but it was doing so from a rather low base and it has to ask itself why it was fighting back from that rather lower base than elsewhere in the country.’’ Speaking on the BBC's Good Morning Wales programme, former Welsh Labour leader Mr Morgan defended his stance.

He said he wanted to mark out distinctive territory after the UK government's promise to end "bog standard’’ comprehensive schools sent a "chill through my spine’’.

"You've got to accept that if you're going to have devolution, there will be divergence,’’ he said.

The Welsh party could not shoulder all the blame for a backlash from voters, he added.

"You can't say 'All right, I'm the leader of the Labour Party in Wales, Labour becomes less successful, but it's got nothing to do with the war in Iraq or the 10p tax rate'.

"That's a nonsense."

Mr Morgan said Labour in Westminster borrowed made-in-Wales ideas, such as free parking at hospitals, just as the Assembly Government used London's expertise to bring down NHS waiting times.