Labour's legacy is 'war and waste'

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Despite a promising start after Tony Blair's 1997 landslide, the administration had proved "deeply damaging to Britain's interests", he said.

But he conceded that his own party nevertheless faced a "tough" set of elections in England, Scotland and Wales on Thursday - refusing to predict major gains.

Sir Menzies spoke out in an interview on BBC1's Politics Show as he launched a dossier highlighting what the party believes to be the greatest failings of the New Labour decade.

It included a 160% rise in personal debt to £1.3 trillion, a wider gap between rich and poor than under Margaret Thatcher, higher carbon emissions, NHS deficits, class sizes and a doubling in violent crime.

Sir Menzies said: "The Blair-Brown government started with so much hope but now we are left with so much disappointment. This Government has wasted its opportunities and wasted your money.

"They have invested in health and education but lacked the courage and principles that would have enabled them to spend it effectively.

"They wasted their opportunity to build a fairer society and instead inequality has increased and social mobility fallen. Labour is still the party of redistribution but in the wrong direction.

"Above all the Blair-Brown government will be remembered for its decision to go to war in Iraq. It was an illegal war waged on false claims.

"The Prime Minister may have taken the decision to go to war but the Chancellor signed the cheques and the Tories voted it through. That's the record for which the Blair-Brown government will be remembered: war and waste."