Tories deserve better leader, defector says

Michael Howard will set out today to repair the damage done to his party by the defection to Labour of one of its most experienced MPs, the former higher education minister Robert Jackson.

Michael Howard will set out today to repair the damage done to his party by the defection to Labour of one of its most experienced MPs, the former higher education minister Robert Jackson.

Mr Howard will claim that a Conservative government would spend nearly £35bn a year less than Labour on wasteful bureaucracy. He will follow this up tomorrow with an announcement of how the Tories would use this money they saved by cutting waste.

Today's claim, which Mr Howard will defend in an television interview, is based on a review carried out by a team of 60 business experts headed by David James, a company trouble-shooter who has rescued numerous ailing UK enterprises, including the Millennium Dome. If Mr James's proposals were carried out, 168 public bodies would be scrapped and 235,000 civil service and other publicly funded jobs would be lost.

Their findings are an essential part of the Conservative leader's strategy for rebuilding the party's fortunes in the next general election, which is probably less than four months away. But the planned announcement was already spoilt by a Populus opinion poll conducted in the marginal seats, for the News of the World, which predicted the Tories are now on course for their worst defeat since 1906.

It was then ruined by the defection of Mr Jackson, the fourth sitting Tory MP to move over to the Labour Party in less than a decade. Mr Jackson, 58, has been MP for Wantage for 22 years, though his political career began earlier when he was appointed adviser to the European Community Commissioner, Lord Soames, in 1974.

A Conservative victory at the forthcoming election would mean "certain damage", Mr Jackson told The Sunday Telegraph.

The party has "dangerous" views on Europe, "incoherent" public service policies and had "wobbled" on Iraq. In a damning assessment of Mr Howard, he said the Tories "deserved better leadership".

"The bottom line is that I think that it is in the country's best interests that Tony Blair rather than Michael Howard should form the next government," he said.

Last night, Tony Blair praised Jackson as "a decent, fair-minded and dedicated public servant, respected across the House of Commons, who will be warmly welcomed by Labour MPs and Members".

The Tories' review of public spending, which they had hoped would dominate the political news for the next two or three days, has taken a year to complete. It has been conducted department by department ending with the Home Office - where the team believes that £1.6bn can be saved, mainly by streamlining the immigration service - the Department of Media and Culture, where they think they can save £336m, and the Foreign Office, where the target is £153m.

Oliver Letwin, the shadow Chancellor, said yesterday: "This is the most detailed and extensive investigation of government spending ever undertaken by an opposition party. David James and his team have done a brilliant job."

Mr James said: "Voters should recognise that the next election is their chance to throw out a dud board and bring Whitehall back under firm efficient management."

But Paul Boateng, Labour's Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: "None of the Tories' figures add up so they can't make these savings and can't pay for any tax cuts."