BRITAIN: Conservatives celebrated the 25th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher's first election victory yesterday with an opinion poll putting the current Tory leader, Mr Michael Howard, now level with the Prime Minister and Labour party leader, Mr Tony Blair, in the race for Number 10. Frank Millar reports from London
However, as Mr Howard joined Baroness Thatcher at a lavish dinner in London's Savoy Hotel, Labour launched its local and European election offensive with a poster campaign depicting the Conservative leader as a throwback to Thatcherism and a warning from Chancellor Gordon Brown that "Michael Howard and his shadow cabinet are a recession waiting to happen."
Last night's sell-out dinner for 500 guests was the first of three major events to mark the day Britain's first and only woman prime minister swept Labour from power and ushered in 18 years of Conservative rule. But Labour strategists will be hoping the week-long Thatcher party backfires on the current Tory leadership as they ponder devastating new evidence that Mr Blair's policies on Iraq and Israel have further eroded his government's reputation for "trust" and that Mr Blair himself may be a declining political asset.
Labour's election poster casts Mr Howard and his immediate predecessors, Mr Iain Duncan Smith and Mr William Hague, in the Thatcher shadow. Drawing from the successful Conservative poster campaign of 1979, it declares: "Britain is working. Don't let the Tories wreck it again." Mr Brown concentrated his attack on the economic record of the last Conservative administration as he joined Mr Blair in a display of solidarity yesterday after renewed speculation about Downing Street "turf wars" over Labour's election manifesto.
Their joint appearance in Leeds came after Mr Brown implicitly slapped-down leading Blairite "modernisers" by identifying himself with the prime minister's reform agenda and calling for "a modern and forward-looking New Labour programme" for a third term.
Not even that show of unity, however, could save Mr Blair from fresh questions about his intentions and prospects for remaining in the top job following the poll finding that most of his personal ratings have turned negative.
Mr Blair could only refer journalists to "the replies I've made a thousand times before on this" as they pressed him on whether he would consider it a sign of success or failure to continue in office as long as Mrs Thatcher.
"I do not stand here today wanting to emulate Margaret Thatcher," he insisted: "I stand here proud of what we've achieved as a Labour government and I want us to carry on achieving - to carry on taking the country forward, not back."
But the clamour about Mr Blair's survival prospects seemed set to continue as the bookmakers cut the odds on a Conservative election victory - while still leaving Labour favourites to win - in light of yesterday's poll for the Daily Telegraph.
It had Mr Howard at level pegging with Mr Blair as the person voters think "would make the best prime minister" - the first Conservative leader to do so since Mr Blair assumed the Labour leadership almost 10 years ago. More worrying for Number 10, the YouGov poll showed Mr Blair's personal ratings in 11 out of 12 key areas are now negative, on some issues by substantial margins. Whereas six years ago, he scored a massive plus 75 for "competence," Mr Blair now rates minus one.
Similarly he now rates minus 19 - as opposed to a previous plus 57 - for "effectiveness".
There will be particular dismay at the finding that the continued fighting in Iraq and his backing for President Bush over Israel are hurting the prime minister. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said they judged the Blair government's actions and statements on Iraq and Israel to have been either "somewhat foolish" (39 per cent) or "very foolish" (25 per cent). Some 68 per cent said they did not consider the government had been honest and trustworthy.
Despite these findings, Prof Anthony King, professor of government at Essex University, said the failure by the Tories to "forge ahead" almost certainly owed an enormous amount to Britain's relative economic success.