Thatcher's PR chiefs return to aid Tories

Lady Thatcher's legendary public relations gurus are being brought back by the Tory party to improve Iain Duncan Smith's image.

Lord Bell and Maurice Saatchi – whose advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi devised the famous "Labour isn't working" campaign that helped the Conservatives to regain power in 1979 with Margaret Thatcher's first win – are to team up and give the party's image a makeover.

Lord Bell will be the chairman of a committee convened by Conservative Central Office and comprising respected spin doctors, advertising executives and marketing experts including Lord Saatchi

The committee is intended to answer concerns in Smith Square that the party's image needs to appeal to younger voters. Its formation, which will indicate to some that the party's current strategy has failed, was dreamt up by the party's new communications chief, Paul Baverstock.

Yesterday a spokesman for the party said members of the new advisory panel would be in "constant contact" with the party leadership. "The objective is to strengthen the party's communications," he said.

The panel will also have a strategic role in how to target women, the young and those who abandoned the Conservatives at the past two elections.

It will also consider how to make Mr Duncan Smith, who has suffered from consistently poor personal ratings, more appealing to the public.

Last night Lord Bell said he thought that improving Mr Duncan Smith's standing in the polls was achievable. "I have done it before," he said. "If you read the press cuttings about Margaret Thatcher [when she was Leader of the Opposition] they were similar to those of Iain."