Labour snubs a pact with Lib Dems: New strategy tested out at Eastleigh

LEADING members of the Shadow Cabinet last night said that any prospect of a Lib-Lab pact at the next General Election had been destroyed by the success of Labour's attacks on the Liberal Democrats in the by-elections and the European polls.

Labour leaders believe the fall in the Liberal Democrat vote to 16 per cent in the European elections was due in part to a change in Labour's campaign strategy. It was secretly agreed after endorsing a Shadow Cabinet paper, which the Independent has obtained. The paper, by Jack Straw, the Shadow Cabinet campaign co-ordinator, describes the Liberal Democrats as 'the promiscuous party - the scavengers of British politics'.

The Shadow Cabinet, which met last night to review the election results, believes the change of strategy on the Liberal Democrats paid dividends in the Eastleigh by- election, where the Tories were forced into third place by Labour.

Mr Straw is Tony Blair's campaign manager for the Labour leadership. Although Mr Blair is regarded as a moderniser, his allies made it clear last night that under his leadership, there would be no deal with the Liberal Democrats.

The Straw paper warned Labour that it must go on to the attack in the South against the Liberal Democrats after its disastrous showing in the Newbury and Christchurch by-elections, which the Liberal Democrats won with massive swings. 'In the past we have tended nationally to treat the Liberals either as our implicit allies on many issues or as an irrelevance or both. This is compounded by the fact that we and they usually vote in the same lobbies. Such a benign approach is in no sense reciprocated by the Liberals. They make ruthless and dishonest use of our voting record.'

Action taken by the Labour Party included: appointing a researcher at Walworth Road, Labour's headquarters to dig for damaging information on the Liberal Democrats' policy, organisation and local government record; monitoring their voting record in the Commons chamber and committees; and targeting their record in Tower Hamlets, east London, which led to Labour's successful campaign in the local elections.

The paper said: 'We should seek to tie the Liberals down more in their own areas by attacking LD councils. They have limited resources which they have been able to use effectively because we have not challenged them sufficiently in their own backyards. Regional organisers will have to train Labour Party activists in these areas to fight the Liberals.'

Liberal-Tory pacts should be highlighted, the paper said, with the message that the Liberal Democrats were 'desperate for a sniff of power'. It said: 'The Liberals are our opponents and should be treated as such . . . They benefit by implying that they are above the nasty battle in which the parties engage. In truth, they are the

least principled of any party and wholly promiscuous in their political relationships.'