Labour's pig poster insult

The Labour Party was today embroiled in an anti-Semitism row over posters depicting Michael Howard and Oliver Letwin as pigs.

One day after Tony Blair's Holocaust Memorial Day speech, his strategists stand accused of being "tasteless".

One of the designs for Labour's proposed general election posters superimposes the faces of the Conservative leader and shadow chancellor Mr Letwin - who are both Jewish - on the bodies of flying pigs. The slogan states: "The Day Tory Sums Add Up".

Andrew Mennear, Tory candidate for Finchley and Golders Green, said the poster was tasteless and would cause offence because there was nothing more distasteful for a Jew than being associated with a pig. Mr Mennear, whose constituency has a large Jewish community, said: "I am shocked the Labour Party finds it remotely clever or amusing to impose the faces of probably the two highest profile Jewish politicians on to flying pigs.

"I urge Labour to apologise and withdraw this tasteless campaign poster immediately."

His worries were shared by some at the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Although the board refuses to get involved in party politics, a source said the posters "really aren't the wisest things we've ever seen". The design is one of several Labour is asking its members to vote on in a website survey. Another image shows Mr Howard hunched over a watch and chain, in what some say is a pose reminiscent of Shylock.

A Labour Party spokesman was unrepentant. "We reject absolutely suggestions that this poster is in any way anti-Semitic," he said. "What it certainly is, is anti-Tory." When asked why the party had not simply used an image of flying pigs without any human features, the spokesman said: "These are the two most prominent Conservatives associated with their policies on taxation and spending and that's why it was done in that way."

Mr Blair yesterday went to great lengths to warn of the dangers of anti-Semitism, declaring that the Holocaust didn't start with the gas chambers, but "with a brick through the window of a Jewish business, desecretion of a synagogue, the shout of racist abuse in the street".

Labour began the year with a billboard poster blitz aimed at getting across its slogan "Britain is Working: Don't Let the Tories Wreck It".

General election co-ordinator Alan Milburn joined Chancellor Gordon Brown and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to launch a series of posters highlighting the Government's economic record.

The flying pigs poster is the lead option given to Labour members on the party's website as the choice for the election campaign. If it gets enough backing, it will feature on hundreds of highprofile sites nationwide in the run-up to polling day, expected on 5 May.

The image is designed by Trevor Beattie's ad agency TBWA. Mr Beattie, who is responsible for the controversial FCUK campaign for French Connection, has in the past masterminded Labour campaigns.

Mr Milburn foreshadowed the new pigs poster campaign last week when he staged a press conference attacking Tory plans. "When they hear Michael Howard promising tax cuts, and promising extra spending on schools and hospitals, they look upwards and see skies full of flying pigs," he said.

Labour is spending £1 million on 1,900 poster sites across the country for its current campaign.