Election '97: Blair targeted in the final push

Tony Blair will be targeted for an intensified attack by Tory party leaders in the final push for the last seven days of the general election campaign.

Tory strategists privately say they have identified Mr Blair as one of the key targets, in order to undermine Labour's election campaign and restore confidence in floating Tory voters.

John Major will step up his assault on Mr Blair's U-turns over policy, including Scottish devolution, but will leave the more personal attacks to leading spokesmen,such as the party chairman, Brian Mawhinney.

The personal attacks on Mr Blair, which have included advertisements showing the Labour leader as a ventriloquist's dummy on German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's knee, have caused outrage but Tory strategists believe they are striking a chord with voters.

"We are finding in our polls that people are increasingly concerned at Blair's changes of policy. He looks tetchy under fire. We think he is frightened by the prospect of office and we are confident that the contrast between Major and Blair is going to damage Labour," said one Tory source.

"There is a growing feeling that we are hitting home when we compare Steady John against Slippery Tony. We are appealing over the heads of the media and it is getting home to the people on the streets."

The campaign, which will intensify over the weekend, with no let-up by Mr Major on Saturday, will also focus on what the Tories claim is the "spiral of silence" by Labour over its economic plans, including a proposed June budget. They will attack Labour for failing to show where the money is going to come from to plug the alleged pounds 1.5bn black hole in Gordon Brown's plans.

The economy has been the main theme of the Conservative campaign, with the slogan "Britain is Booming". Tory strategists believe the message is beginning to have its effect on the opinion polls but will also link it to evidence of widespread Euro-scepticism.

Mr Major will attack Mr Blair for threatening to give away British sovereignty at the same time as risking more job losses. "We are going to go on Europe, Europe and Europe. Europe is big and doing us well," said the source.

Conservative tracking polls showed the gap with Labour fell from 11 to six-and-a-half per cent at the start of the week, after heavy attacks on Labour over Europe. Mirroring the ICM poll in the Guardian, the Tory tracking poll showed Labour's lead had slipped to five points, which the Tory strategists said had raised morale at Central Office: "We feel that we can really do it now."

Mr Major continued to play down the polls yesterday and said it was too early to say what the result of the election would be. But he warned: "The election on the doorstep will be very hard fought."

Although he has professed his confidence that he will win, Mr Major said yesterday: "I don't think anyone can predict with any certainty what the result will be."

Last night, he launched the final push by staking his hopes for victory on a twin attack on Mr Blair over his approach to Europe and the Scottish parliament. In spite of Cabinet splits over Europe between Kenneth Clark and Michael Howard, Conservative strategists believe the voters have discounted the disunity factor and that their Euro-sceptic message is sinking in.

ENDS/Sharon