IN A BID to woo Britain's traditionally Tory-supporting industrialists, the Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair, launched his party's special business manifesto yesterday with a declaration that New Labour was now "the entrepreneurs' champion" with "dynamic" policies.
Flanked by several prominent Labour-supporting business people, Mr Blair appealed to the die-hard Tory voters to read his 20-page document and be reassured by the new relationship New Labour had built with industrialists.
"In this manifesto we show how a new Labour government will work in partnership with business. We want Britain to be a great place to do business. We want business in Britain to succeed and deliver healthy growth, good profits, rising living standards and more jobs," he said.
However, the Tories hired an advertising van to remind the industrialists of old Labour's views of the business community. In large lettering the van's poster quoted the shadow cabinet minister, Mr Frank Dobson's alleged description of industrialists as "stinking, lousy, thieving, incompetent scum.
Mr Blair has spent months touring Britain, meeting the business community, hoping to convert them. This manifesto, entitled Equipping Britain for the Future, was intended to finally seal his transformation of Labour from a union-dominated party to one which will forge close links with industrialists.
Labour's recent conversion to privatisation is again repeated in the manifesto, explaining that the private sector sometimes does things better than the public sector. It also had a tough message for Britain's public sector workers, warning that Labour will take a "firm and fair" approach to pay.
After stressing the party's commitment to signing the Social Chapter, the Shadow Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, attacked Mr Major's weak leadership, arguing that a divided Conservative party inhibited Britain's economy.
"Today the business community has seen what it dislikes most a government weakly led and divided, disorganised and disintegrating over its central policy on Europe, up to 200 separate manifestos expected, a government minister in disagreement with the official line, a Prime Minister who has said he would not allow this to happen and yet takes no action when it does," he said.
In his manifesto, Mr Blair also pledges to stabilise prices by achieving 2.5 per cent inflation or less, implement tough rules on borrowing and spending, with no rise in income tax; create new public/private sector partnerships to modernise the transport network, and to lead reform in Europe which will promote competition and get the best for Britain.