Labour’s new line of attack on David Cameron revealed

Secret document outlines party’s plan to launch campaign to brand prime minister as ‘recognisably rightwing’ leader Labour is developing a new strategy to paint David Cameron as an old-style, traditional Tory, according to confidential documents obtained by the Observer , as the parties prepare to do battle during the coming conference season. The opposition believes the prime minister has abandoned the centre ground in recent months to adopt a more orthodox conservative stance on issues such as law and order, immigration and welfare. They are now set to launch a concerted campaign to brand Cameron as a “recognisably rightwing” leader in a move that will inevitably inflame political debate. The creation of the strategy follows reports last month that Cameron had polled negatively for the first time, with more people saying that the prime minister was doing a bad job than those backing him. “Like first world war generals, we must avoid making all our preparations for the last battle rather than the next,” the leaked document says. “Indeed, the very terrain on which we will fight is changing.” The two-and-half-page paper written by the MP Shaun Woodward, a former Tory frontbencher and now head of Labour’s anti-Tory attack unit, and circulated among senior Labour officials, lays bare the areas where the opposition now believes Cameron is vulnerable. It asserts that the government’s recent rhetoric and policy offer a chance to frame Cameron as a traditional Tory prime minister, arguing that there is clear evidence that the party has “moved rapidly rightwards” in response to major events. In the wake of the riots, Cameron vowed to confront a “moral collapse” in British society while urging the courts to hand out tough sentences to those involved. Earlier this year he claimed that uncontrolled immigration threatened communities and their way of life in comments that his own business secretary, Vince Cable, said “risked inflaming extremism”. The document further claims the prime minister has moved away from pre-election priorities of being trusted on the NHS and the environment, both crucial areas of the “compassionate conservatism” that Cameron made central to his image. Woodward warns, however, that while there are opportunities for Labour there are “significant political risks if Labour fails to handle the change with alacrity, strength and sensitivity”. There are fears that some of the rightwing rhetoric employed by the government in recent months may chime with large sections of the public, as it did in the 1980s during Margaret Thatcher’s premiership. Senior figures in the party have also conceded that they have struggled to land a blow on Cameron, who is regarded as a skilful manipulator of his image. But in the document, which is likely to be presented to the full shadow cabinet in the coming weeks, Woodward appeals to the leadership to reassess the focus of its attacks. “At the last election we faced a Conservative party (and a Conservative leader in David Cameron) whose strategic goal was to decontaminate their brand, intending to present themselves as reformed, modern, centrist and pragmatic,” it says. “Repositioning on issues like the NHS and the environment was used as evidence of the emergence of a ‘compassionate conservatism’ – a phrase first used by George W Bush prior to his election as president. Cameron was effective in promoting a perception his party had changed.” But it adds: “Of course, in discussing how we frame out messages on the Conservatives it is important that anything we say is credible. We should not ignore there has been limited change on issues such as their attitude to gay rights and an attempt to embrace other aspects of a progressive social liberal agenda. “But here is the paradox: whilst the Tories made changes before the election – intended to convince the public they were compassionate – since the election (and especially in the last few months) the Tories have taken major strides back towards their ideological roots. Buffeted by events, there is a growing incoherence between ‘liberal conservatism’ and the increasingly shrill language the Tories are using as they vacate the centre ground.” It is also claimed that the focus on markets by health secretary Andrew Lansley, Michael Gove, the education secretary, and universities minister David Willetts is “very distant” from the voters’ aspirations for their public services. “Analysis of Tory party policy, carried out over the summer, convincingly demonstrates the Conservatives are shifting to a distinctly rightwing strategy, in both their chosen focus on issues and their solutions,” it says. “Cameron clearly recognises some of the danger he faces in his repositioning. He is still seeking to separate himself out from a toxic Tory brand and has assumed a presidential role and style. But the Tories have become far less worried about inhabiting the centre ground they once cultivated and more worried about any perception of appearing weak. “They do not appear to be seeking long-term solutions to Britain’s real challenges and problems and Cameron himself now appears to be a recognisably rightwing prime minister.” Labour David Cameron Conservatives Daniel Boffey guardian.co.uk

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