New Labour posters get personal

The row over Labour's election posters deepened today after the party unveiled more controversial images.

Election campaign chief Alan Milburn launched new posters focusing on Tory leader Michael Howard.

They include a shadowy black-and-white photograph of Mr Howard - a possible reference to Tory MP Ann Widdecombe's famous comment that there is "something of the night" about him.

The highly personalised posters will fuel the debate about Labour's tactics. They were launched today after the axing of images of Mr Howard and his shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin - both Jewish - as flying pigs, and one appearing to liken the Tory leader to a Shylock or Fagintype figure. The images triggereda wave of protest, including claims that they could smack of anti-Semitism.

The new posters, highlighting Mr Howard's role in the hated poll tax and high interest rates of the "boom and bust" Conservative years, are a response to the Tories' new slogan: "Are you thinking what we're thinking?"

The poster images they replace, labelled an example of negative electioneering "dark arts" by former foreign secretary Robin Cook, were approved by Mr Milburn.

He today said the new posters "remind people of the failed economic past they are trying so hard to escape. At the next election the Labour Party will put forward positive policieson the economy, public services, crime and asylum, indeed all the issues of concern to the British people."

However, two of the posters focus exclusively on Mr Howard and could expose Labour to accusations of hypocrisy over personalised campaigning.

When the Tories unleashed their "Demon Eyes" poster campaign in 1997, Tony Blair attacked "negative, personalised" campaigning.

Mr Milburn is battling to reassert his position after the row. Some believe Chancellor Gordon Brown should be in charge.

An ally of the Chancellor said of Mr Milburn: "He's just not up to it. He doesn't have the experience of running an election campaign and it's beginning to show. It may be that Gordon will be drafted in to rescue the campaign."