Speaking to old-regime remnants at a fringe meeting, Tory party propagandist and chairman Lord Saatchi claimed that “the Labour Party is bound to lose the General Election unless it dumps Tony Blair”. The advertising guru said that public disillusionment with the Prime Minister had reached such a pitch that his position in the polls was “irrecoverable”. Lord Saatchi derided Mr Blair as “messianic man with stars in his eyes looking at the promised land in the distance”.
He said that the Conservatives’ own private polling showed that they were now ahead of Labour in 103 of their 130 target seats – enough to force Mr Blair out of No 10. “If Tony Blair is still the Prime Minister, I can’t see any way in which Labour can win the General Election. According to our own figures, we already will win enough of our target seats for Labour to lose power. That’s why I say I can’t see how they can win because the position they have got themselves into in terms of disillusionment – he in particular – is irrecoverable.” There are no UKIP voters in Baghdad he insisted. (Alright, I made that last bit up.)
UPDATE: Guido almost feels ashamed of himself for mocking – Saatchi’s main speech to the conference was clever and convincingly damning on Labour’s bureaucratic waste. It was better than Howard’s “Trust Me” speech.
