Blair's blast at Howard

Tony Blair today launched a fierce personal attack on Michael Howard as he started Labour's campaign for the European elections.

The Prime Minister was seeking to shore up support amid predictions that his party is heading for disaster on 10 June, with polls pointing to a clear Conservative victory.

In a newspaper advertisement today, Labour published a mock CV of the Tory leader, recalling his introduction of the poll tax and accusing him of planning cuts in public services. Mr Howard's "referees" were named as Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

The attack will continue in a TV broadcast tonight under Labour's slogan "Britain is working. Don't let the Tories wreck it again." Images of Mr Howard will appear over the soundtrack of a Simply Red song warning voters: "If you don't know me by now, you will never, never, never know me."

There were signs of unease within party ranks at the rush to employ negative tactics. One former minister, Peter Kilfoyle, said he "deplored" what he called "the Americanisation of our politics".

The campaign signalled Labour unease at the improvement in the Tories' poll ratings since Mr Howard took over from Iain Duncan Smith at the start of the year.

An opinion poll at the weekend suggested Labour is on course to lose its Commons majority at the general election unless Gordon Brown replaces Mr Blair.

The Tories are confident of improving on their showing at the last European election in 1999, when William Hague notched up a rare victory.

At today's campaign launch at Canary Wharf, Mr Blair was claiming that voters faced a choice between a Labour party that would keep Britain at the heart of Europe and a Tory party that would leave the country marginalised.

Flanked by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt, the Prime Minister was insisting it was in Britain's economic interest to have a strong group of Labour Euro-MPs committed to Europe. There were reports that Labour chairman Ian McCartney is being lined up to take the blame for a poor Labour showing. His departure would trigger a reshuffle which could see the appointment of Britain's first Cabinet-level Europe Minister.

Friends of Mr McCartney insist Labour activists are putting in a stronger effort in the current campaign than ahead of local elections a year ago. However, many Labour grassroots members who opposed the war in Iraq remain reluctant to come out in support of the party.

Labour's newspaper advertisement, headed "Michael Howard - Curriculum Vitae", gives a summary of his career in government from introducing the poll tax as a local government ministerin 1987, to cutting police numbers as home secretary from 1993. It also recalls Ann Widdecombe's jibe that Mr Howard has "something of the night" about him.

Tory joint chairman Liam Fox said: "This shows how out of touch Labour are with the real mood of the British people. This negative personal campaigning will only reinforce the impression that the Government has no real ideas and that the PM and his party are no longer fit to govern."

In 1997, after the Tories launched their "demon eyes" advertising campaign aimed at Mr Blair, he said: "The health service, crime, jobs, education - those are the things that the people want to hear about, not nasty, negative, personalised, abusive campaigning."