Toffs, Poles and Tamsin: The blunders that sent Crewe blue

Ministers, activists and, crucially, voters were bewildered and concerned that the party had resorted to ‘dirty tricks’ so soon after the starting gun was fired.

Campaign chiefs decided to resort to the core Labour theme of class by portraying Conservative candidate Edward Timpson – a barrister whose family founded the multi-million pound shoeshop business – as a ‘Tory toff’ because of his background.

Welcome to my government in waiting: David Cameron salutes his new MP, Edward Timpson

Dubbed ‘Lord Snooty’, he was shadowed around the constituency by Labour supporters in top hats and tails.

Party leaflets also claimed the 34-year-old lived in a ‘mansion’, drove a Bentley and owned a herd of llamas.

In a sinister twist, Labour also attempted to stir up voters’ fears about the influx of foreigners in a constituency with a large Polish population by claiming the Tories were soft on population.

And they sought to trade on the Dunwoody name by parachuting in as their candidate Tamsin – daughter of long-serving MP Gwyneth Dunwoody, whose death led to the by-election.

Many voters on the streets of Crewe and Nantwich told the Daily Mail in the
run-up to polling day that they were appalled by Labour’s strategy.

The Tories used to be portrayed as the ‘nasty party’ by opponents because of their perceived lack of sympathy for the disadvantaged.

Yesterday Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said: ‘There is a new “nasty party” in British politics and it is the Labour Party.’

Knives are likely to be out for Steve McCabe, the Labour MP for Birmingham Hall Green, who spearheaded the campaign on the ground.

Flawed: Labour supporters dressed as toffs led to accusations of being the 'nasty party'

But senior ministers believe Downing Street must shoulder some of the blame for showing poor judgment in failing to stop what one frontbencher called ‘utter stupidity’.

The ‘class war’ campaign – which involved photographs of Mr Timpson’s Cheshire home reproduced on one Labour pamphlet with the slogan ‘Tory Boy Timpson’s mansion house’ – backfired spectacularly.

Voters had little time for the tactic in an era when the majority see themselves as middle-class.

Labour’s attempt to play the immigration card by highlighting how Mr Timpson opposed ID cards for ‘foreign nationals’ also failed.

Not only did it prompt traditional supporters to accuse campaign chiefs of using ‘the language of the BNP’, voters realised the party was trying to dupe them because Labour had presided over a huge increase in immigration.

Furthermore, Miss Dunwoody – who insisted she had ‘no regrets’ about her strategy in the once solid Labour seat – was seen as a lightweight compared with her highly-respected mother, who was renowned for standing up to the Government.

Visiting the newly-blue seat yesterday, Conservative leader David Cameron said: ‘Labour ran the most negative, backward campaign they could have done and it completely backfired. Why did it backfire? Because people don’t want that kind of campaign any more.’

Compass, the Left-wing thinktank, attacked the ‘anti-toff’ tactics as ‘desperate’.

It added: ‘The death blow to the party’s chances was delivered by an inept, negative and poisonous campaign.’