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Labour failing to portray Tories as 'Right-wing'
Nicholas Cecil, Chief Political Correspondent09.09.08
Labour's campaign to portray the Tories as dangerous Right-wingers was in disarray today.
A leaked document revealed that party chiefs have admitted they are struggling to convince voters that David Cameron's Tories are extremists.
At the same time, shadow Chancellor George Osborne has launched an audacious bid to woo Left-wingers.
The Government's tactics are to attack the Conservatives as unreconstructed despite Mr Cameron's changes to his party.
But ministers accept they are finding it difficult to make their claim stick.
Ahead of Labour's annual rally in Manchester later this month, party chiefs are briefing MPs and activists on how to counter the Tory revival.
They want to persuade voters that Mr Cameron has brought slick salesmanship to his party, and have labelled him a "chameleon", but that behind the facade little has changed.
"With their warm words and slick positioning, it is hard to convince people of the argument that the Tories have not changed, but the evidence is there," say Labour briefing slides, according to The Guardian.
"Occasionally the mask slips and we see the dangerous, old-fashioned Tory Right-wing instincts hidden underneath.
"They believe in cuts in public services, to fund tax cuts for the richest, and a smaller, less effective government.
"Our job is to hold the Tories relentlessly accountable and expose the reality behind the image."
Party insiders accept that the strategy is a risk as many people have warmed to Mr Cameron and believe he has modernised the Conservatives.
Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell is expected to brief MPs today on the tactics, accusing the Tories of trying to "hijack Labour's central core traditional value of fairness.".
The 16-page briefing document adds: "Unlike the Tories, we really believe in it as an end, and unlike them we don't just pay lip service to it. We are willing to commit the means to make it a reality."
But it also reportedly accepts that the Tories have changed on some issues such as gay rights.
Mr Osborne yesterday moved to ditch Tory promises to match Labour's spending plans opening him up to the charge that he is paving the way for public spending cuts.
But he also launched a raid on traditional Labour territory as TUC delegates gathered in Brighton.
In an open letter to activists, he said: "If you care about better jobs and better incomes, forget about the Labour party.
"It has forgotten about you...social justice is at the very heart of the modern Conservative message."
Reader views (6)
The Labour Party is Infinito ---
- Raymond Pidgley, Romford
Britain is once again the sick man of Europe. The Euro will break Spain Italy and Portugal as their real estate crash wipes out their banks capital. Nu [Old] Labor is still trying to peddle its old Statist failed socialist politics using the Scottish jerrymandered vote. They are finished. As soon as Cameron takes power the Scots must be disenfranchised on English issues. He who pays the piper calls the tune!
- James, New Malden, Surrey
Mr Osborne yesterday moved to ditch Tory promises to match Labour's spending plans opening him up to the charge that he is paving the way for public spending cuts"
Good. About time we cut back on Labour's waste and put more money back into the pockets of working people.
Yet again today Labour are tinkering with ways of getting more immigrant workers here to take skilled jobs rather than making companies train people with those skills. At the same, Labour rejected a call for limits on immigrants settling in the country. SO much for Mr Browns "British Jobs for British Workers". Cameron is not the slick salesman. It's Brown who is the conman.
"They believe in cuts in public services, to fund tax cuts for the richest, and a smaller, less effective government"
Smaller government means a more efficient government and tax cuts tend to go to everybody. It is Labour who have presided over the ever-growing gulf between rich and poor. It was Labour who taxed the poorest workers by scrapping the 10% band.
It is less a case of people warming to the Conservatives and more a case of starting to detest Labour. They are also warming to Plaid Cymru, the SNP and sadly the BNP. If the Liberal Democrats hadn't chucked out Charles Kennedy and replaced him with Corporal Jones and Private Pike, they probably would be taking an ever-greater share of the Labour vote.
- M Spanner, Ilford
"Our job is to hold the Tories relentlessly accountable and expose the reality behind the image." No, your job is to run the country successfully; which you are doing badly.
- Simon, London, UK
This article expresses the very core of the difference between the parties:
Labour's first principle is fairness - everybody should get their "fair share".
The Conservatives' first principle is justice - everybody should get what they earn.
Labour cares about the distribution of wealth. The Tories care about its creation.
Britain needs to decide which it values more.
- Neil, London, UK
The most revealing quote here is: "They believe in cuts in public services, to fund tax cuts for the richest".
It's an interesting insight into Labour psychology that they speak of "funding" tax cuts - as though taking away less of your money is somehow equivalent to *giving* you something.
For all of the slick salesmanship of the Blair years, it is Labour who have not changed. They still believe, in their heart of hearts, that property and wealth are gifts to be handed out by a benevolent and all-powerful government, rather than the earned fruits of one's own efforts.
Whose mask is really slipping?
- Neil, London, UK
