A FLUFFY yellow chicken will attempt to pursue Mr Tony Blair this morning, as he launches Labour's election manifesto. The chicken, alias musician actor Noel Flanagan, has been tasked to harry the Labour leader as part of the Conservative Party's continuing attempt to embarrass Mr Blair into head to head television debate with Mr John Major.
The Conservatives will be hoping to maintain the momentum of their own manifesto launch, which yesterday targeted two million families with the promise of transferable tax allowances for spouses who stay at home to look after children or dependent relatives.
But a new MORI/Times poll, due to be published today, showed Labour surging ahead at 55 per cent, 5 per cent up on a week ago, with the Tories down one to 28 per cent. The Liberal Democrats dropped 3 to 11 per cent.
Meanwhile, Labour and the Liberal Democrats combined to pour scorn on Mr Major's Big Idea. Reopening Labour's charge of broken tax pledges in 1992, the shadow chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, said: "The blunt truth is that no one trusts John Major and the Tories on tax. They're at it again ... flagging up uncosted promises without the faintest idea how to pay for them, just as in 1992 they made promises to cut tax year on year and then we saw the biggest tax rise in peacetime history.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Paddy Ashdown, attacked the manifesto as one "for the few, not the many". Damningly, Mr Ashdown said, the manifesto "does nothing to address the growing divide between the haves and have nots in our society".
Mr Major said the proposed tax break - centrepiece of what he called the boldest election manifesto produced by any party since 1979 - would cost £1.2 billion; would take priority over other tax cutting objectives; and would probably come in the second year of the new parliament.
The proposed reward for the family was coupled with proposals to fund a "respite break" for those with a full time caring role for other members of the family; a revolution in the pensions system; and plans to ease the cost of care in old age.
Church and family groups who have been campaigning for a change in taxation policy hailed yesterday's announcement as "good news for families and for marriage". But there was a critical reaction from the Low Pay Unit, which claimed the proposal "targets the rich" and would give least help to those families most in need.
But, placing his hopes in the traditional appeal of the Conservatives as the tax cutting party, Mr Major said "the next phase of Conservative prosperity" would give everyone more choice and control over their lives. Reclaiming the mantle of One Nation, he said: "We wish to make haves of the have nots; to bring wealth and welfare hand in hand."
The Tory right was delighted by Mr Major's concession on family taxation, which he was careful to cast as a practical tax benefit to those with a primary responsibility to look after others. But there was no concession to the right on Europe, with the manifesto keeping strictly to the "wait and see" approach to European Monetary Union (EMU).
For those sceptical about election manifestoes, there was an intriguing section on Northern Ireland which omitted all reference to the nature or conduct of the government's policy throughout the last parliament. While cherishing the Union, and looking to agreement to bring Direct Rule to an end, the manifesto carried no reference to the Irish Republic, the peace process, the Downing Street Declaration, the Joint Framework Documents, or the three stranded framework for the multi party talks.
. The Tory MP at the centre of the most recent sleaze scandal, Mr Piers Merchant, was last night adopted as party candidate for Beckenham, Kent by 116 votes to four.
Mr Merchant, a married man, has been the subject of allegations of an affair with a 17 year old nightclub hostess, Ms Anna Cox.