Tory leader hires Labour's 'spin headquarters' to attack Blair

Iain Duncan Smith will claim today that Tony Blair's "lying" government has run out of steam and is suffering from "drift and decay".

The Tory leader has hired Labour's former headquarters in Millbank Tower, London, which became the symbol of Mr Blair's "spin" and "control-freakery", for an end-of-term speech to Conservative activists and MPs before Parliament starts its summer break on Thursday. He will say that New Labour's "spin" has now given way to "lies".

Mr Duncan Smith will describe Mr Blair and Gordon Brown as "the Arthur Daleys" of British politics - "the dodgiest of used-car salesmen, trying to flog a clapped-out, broken-down model for change, by slapping on a new coat of paint." He will claim that the Prime Minister and Chancellor tried to con Middle Britain into believing that their policies were conservative - and that people could have a Conservative government without the Conservative Party. "They dumped some unpopular Old Labour policies. But although the language changed, their instincts did not. They remain: to over-tax, over-regulate and under-deliver," he will say.

Accusing Mr Blair of lacking the conviction needed to secure the real change Britain needs, Mr Duncan Smith will say: "He sings the song of change as if change were an end in itself. He says delivery is on its way, but he said the same thing in 1999, 2000, 2001 and again last year."

The Tory leader will tell his party activists that the leadership will campaign throughout the summer against Mr Blair's "lies".

The Tories, who have already depicted the Prime Minister as Pinocchio in a campaign leaflet, will run a series of advertisements on the threat of further tax rises under Labour, echoing their successful "tax bombshell" adverts at the 1992 general election.

"There is a sense of drift and decay about this Government which no number of relaunches will reverse," Mr Duncan Smith will say.