Tabloids endorse Blair

LONDON - Britain's biggest selling weekly, the tabloid News of the World, has joined its sister paper the Sun in backing Labour to win Thursday's election.

Like the Sun, the down-market but influential News of the World gave a lukewarm endorsement to the Government, saying it was backing Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour party "not without some apprehension".

"If Labour form the next Government we put them on notice this newspaper will be watching them closely," it said today.

The News of the World and the Sun are both owned by Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The Sun, Britain's biggest-selling daily, came out in favour of Blair on April 20. The Sun has a daily circulation of more than three million copies, the News of the World even more.

Both papers are backing Labour despite editorial stances that lean towards the political right.

Polls suggest Blair should win a third term, although possibly with a reduced majority in parliament.

However, finance minister Gordon Brown issued a warning on Saturday that the Conservatives could win the election if as few as one Labour voter in 10 decides to switch allegiance or abstain

Mr Brown's words reflected Labour's nervousness that the party's consistent lead in the opinion polls - eight percentage points, according to the Independent on Sunday's latest poll - is melting away in marginal seats.

One Labour strategist has accused the Tories of running a "ruthless" campaign whose main purpose has been to put Labour supporters off voting altogether, or to get them to defect to minor parties.

"There are three ways of getting a Tory government," Mr Brown said at a rally in Edinburgh yesterday. "You can vote Tory, you can vote for a third party and let the Tories in. Or you can fail to vote at all, and let the Tories in."

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy accused Mr Brown of scare tactics.

He said: "Clearly, Labour are rather worried about [our] challenge. There is no danger of a Michael Howard Conservative government. People can go out there and vote for what they believe in and agree with, confident in the knowledge that he's not going to be prime minister and that Tony Blair should certainly not enjoy another three-figure majority."

In a speech in Ashford, Kent, Mr Howard suggested that, after the result of the election on Friday, "we could be waking up to a brighter day for Britain".

- REUTERS, INDEPENDENT, HERALD ONLINE STAFF