THE British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, denounced the Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair, as untrustworthy and already "out of depth" during this election campaign. He was addressing the Tory faithful in the Albert Hall, London, yesterday. In scenes reminiscent of the Last Night of the Proms, Mr Major told over 2,000 supporters at the Conservatives' first rally of this election campaign that the United Kingdom would not be safe in Labour's hands. He described their plans tore constitutional reform as a "demolition job" which would create a divided country.
"Four left hooks to the British body politic. Four left upper-cuts to bring the influence and independence of the United Kingdom crashing to the canvas. Come May 1st, for 290 years the United Kingdom has grown, flourished, traded, invented, civilised and astonished the world.
"New Labour's self-declared priority - forget health, forget schools, forget savings, forget welfare - their overriding priority is to bring in constitutional changes that would demolish our near 300-year-old Union in a mater of years," he proclaimed.
As the audience waved Union flags, Mr Major said he felt it was his duty as Prime Minister to warn the electorate about the dangers of this "wanton vandalism". Mr Blair's comments yesterday about Scottish devolution, Mr Major claimed, proved the Labour leader was "out of his depth" and could not be trusted.
"For years Labour have been telling Scotland that they would give them a tax- raising parliament. Now Mr Blair implies that a Scottish parliament would be no more than a parish council. Scotland a parish council. Scotland is not a parish. It is a great nation, one of four nations that have made the United Kingdom one of the great influences of the world," he said.
Mr Major maintained that just 24 hours after Mr Blair insisted that trust was the key issue of the general election campaign, and that he could be trusted, he had broken his promise to the Scottish people.
"The Labour leader talks of trust. The first trust of any prime minister is to keep our nation as one nation. If he cannot be trusted on that, he should not be trusted on anything," he added.
Playing the Euro-sceptical card once again, Mr Major said he was prepared to be isolated in Europe if it was in the best interests of Britain.
"What is at stake in this election is not just your job. Your livelihood. Your prosperity. It's much more. It's the future of the very land in which we live.
"The nation we care for. And that's what we must fight every day, on every doorstep, in every street, in every town to protect our nation."