Conservatives make election personal
Conservative leader Michael Howard has decided to make the closing days of the 2005 general election campaign increasingly personal, branding Tony Blair a ‘liar’.
The Conservatives’ latest election poster is an unprecedented personal attack on Mr Blair reading: “If he’s prepared to lie to take us to war, he’s prepared to lie to win an election”.
In response, Mr Blair maintained he will not be drawn on the personal attacks and is intent on stressing Labour’s core message of the economy, health and education.
Mr Blair is speaking in Manchester later today where he is expected to brush off the personal attacks and suggest that they are part of the Conservatives’ plans to “sneak in through the back door”.
“My response? I will carry on talking about the issues that matter to the hard-working families of this country: the economy, the NHS, our schools, law and order,” the prime minister said in Bolton today.
“I don’t care in the least about the Tory attacks on my character. I do care about the future of this country.”
What is important, Mr Blair added, are Labour’s plans for investment in education – contrasted with the Tory plans for a pupil’s passport, which Labour says would take money out of the state system.
But speaking in Edinburgh today, the Conservative leader showed no sign of backing away from his attacks.
Mr Howard said that tax was a central test of Mr Blair’s character, claiming that in 1997 Mr Blair said he would not put up taxes – then he did.
“In 2001 Mr. Blair was at it again – telling people they shouldn’t suppose he would put up National Insurance Contributions. And what did he do? In his very first budget he put up National Insurance.”
He accused Mr Blair of attempting a “con trick” on the British public, saying: “Virtually every independent commentator agrees that if Mr. Blair gets in again taxes will go up again.
“But can he bring himself to admit it? No. He’s got away with it twice before and he thinks he can pull his con trick off for a third time.”
The Liberal Democrats have stayed out of the personal attacks, with Charles Kennedy concentrating on the Lib Dems’ promise of specialist teachers for the core secondary school subjects. He also added that the Lib Dem mood was the best since the “heady days” of 1983.
