Blair turns to soap star

Tony Blair shifted the election campaign on to family prosperity today with a direct appeal to Britain's one million "school gate mums".

The Prime Minister and Gordon Brown were targeting young mothers in key seats with a glossy, supermarketstyle magazine drafted by Labour to win round crucial women voters.

Families Matter features articles by TV star Ross Kemp alongside stories hailing new money for school meals, higher child tax credit, more childcare and faster treatment for cervical cancer. The Prime Minister was joining Education Secretary Ruth Kelly to show the magazine to selected families. Mr Brown and ministers Yvette Cooper and Harriet Harman were greeting mothers at the gates of a London school.

The campaign has been heavily influenced by American political strategists who found the party that could win over so-called "soccer moms" would clinch elections. Mr Blair kicked off the campaign with an interview with two women writers on the Daily Mirror in which he went out of his way to sympathise with pressured mothers. "They're the ones who have to balance all the things in a family's life," he said.

"They're the ones who really need the financial security to make the household tick. They're the ones who get angry when they see people who don't play by the rules getting away with it."

Labour's women MPs have criticised election coordinator Alan Milburn's "macho" style. Labour now says it will target the women it sees as essential for winning a third term. The purpose of the campaign is to "personalise" the party's message on the economy by highlighting its impact on families.

A party source told the Evening Standard: "The key constituency of 'school gate mums' - many of whom are disengaged from conventional party political campaigning - could decide the result of the election." Mr Blair and Mr Brown will use the theme of "bringing the economy home" - stressing family prosperity and the risk the Conservatives pose to hard-working families.

Its latest party election broadcast will highlight Michael Howard's record and what Labour claims is his responsibility for the poll tax, unemployment, repossessions and 15 per cent mortgage rates.

Labour's polling shows that 51 per cent of women are unaware of Mr Howard's record in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. The more women know about Mr Howard's record the more they are turned off him, the party's research claims.