Mandelson says Tories failing to recover early lead

WITH two opinion polls last night still pointing to a hung parliament, Labour’s election supremo Peter Mandelson said the Tories had failed to recover the lead they enjoyed at the start of the campaign.

“The big story of the election is that the Tories blew their lead at the beginning of this race and are still not winning it back,” he said. “David Cameron is desperate to give the impression that he is home and dry and all that’s required is to weigh the Tory vote. But the overwhelming majority of voters are firmly resisting his soft soap campaign.”

ICM for The Guardian put the Conservatives on 33%, with Labour and the Lib Dems level-pegging on 28%, while YouGov for The Sun had the Conservatives on 34%, the Lib Dems on 29%, and Labour on 28%.

Mandelson said that only Labour could stop Cameron entering Downing Street, while the Lib Dems would “hand power to him on a plate”.

Meanwhile, Cameron denied that “tough” decisions on spending would mean cuts to frontline services as he campaigned yesterday in marginal seats he needs to take from both rival parties to secure overall victory.

The Tory leader said the squeeze on spending would be worse than for many years – and would mean more cuts than identified so far – but insisted he would not allow it to impact on those in need.

And he suggested reforms would draw on private sector cost-cutting in firms such as Tesco as he answered questions at a store alongside the supermarket giant’s boss, Terry Leahy.

Buoyed by opinion polls showing a clear Conservative lead just four days ahead of polling day, Cameron resumed his frenetic tour of Britain with raids into Liberal Democrat and Labour heartlands.

In Newquay, Cornwall, he told business leaders that the Liberal Democrats, who hold several Tory target seats in the area, had been exposed as having “crazy” policies, notably on immigration.

And campaigning in Delyn, Wales, where the Tories need a swing of nearly 10% to unseat Labour’s police minister David Hanson, he accused Gordon Brown of resorting to “scare” tactics.

He repeated his pledge to act “in the national interest” in the event of a hung parliament, but warned it was most likely to result in a “muddle” that left Harriet Harman or Ed Balls running Britain.

Gordon Brown’s whistlestop tour of London took in weekend shoppers at a Tesco superstore in Hammersmith, an urban dance troupe at a community centre in Walworth, and a service at the New Testament Church of God in Streatham.

Throughout the day, he consistently focused his fire on the Tories, using a stump speech in Tooting to denounce their manifesto as a “horror show”.

He attacked the Tories’ planned inheritance tax cut which, he said, would hand £200,000 to the 3,000 wealthiest estates in the country while tax credits and public services were cut.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg yesterday mounted an ambitious bid for votes in Labour heartlands by promising “support and help” for those let down by Gordon Brown.