Charles Kennedy and the Liberal Democrats have been savaged by two tabloid newspapers.

With delegates gathered in Bournemouth for their annual conference, the Sun and the Mirror both mount stinging assaults on both the leader and his policies.

But the papers chose to take different lines of attack - Rupert Murdoch's Sun warning of a tax hiking, soft on crime agenda, while the left-leaning Mirror said Kennedy was offering a dressed up version of Thatcherism.

It even superimposed the face of the Scot onto a picture of the Iron Lady with a trademark blue suit and handbag.

The Sun had its own cruel visual jibe, comparing Kennedy to a "spineless reptile that spits venom".

Spread across two pages, the paper accused the Lib Dems of pledging to "run down our armed forces", encouraging activists to be dishonest with voters and promising 40 tax increases.

Kennedy's asylum, law and order and European policies were also singled out while an accompanying editorial concluded that: "The threat posed by the Lib Dems should not be underestimated.

"Lib Dem policies are far to the left of Labour - in fact, many would do the old Labour of the 1970s proud."

Crypto-Tories?

However the Mirror chose to pick up on recent moves within the party to reclaim economic liberalism from the Conservatives.

Labelling them the "Orange Tories" in reference to a recent book setting out centrist polices such as social insurance, the Labour-supporting paper said the Lib Dems were trying to outflank Michael Howard.

"Scratch the surface and you'll find a party that supports privatisation, wants to tear down the NHS and whose proposed economic reforms would hurt Britain's very poorest," the editorial page piece claimed.

While the attacks will put an end to any hopes that the Lib Dems could pick up support from either paper at the next election, they will reinforce the feeling that the party is being taken seriously as a threat to both Labour and the Tories.

They also reflect concern among ministers and Conservatives that the third party's policy platform has not been subjected to rigorous media scrutiny.

Meanwhile a new MORI poll has encouraged Kennedy to capitalise on support among women voters.

The survey for the Fawcett Society found that Lib Dem support among 25 to 54-year-olds who normally vote Tory is at record levels.