Labour: Looking to galvanise core vote

The prime minister has been seeking to reverse the impact of the Iraq war on his public support.

Tony Blair has made a hand-written appeal to disillusioned readers of the Daily Mirror newspaper.

The five page note was reprinted in full in the paper and spread across its front page on Wednesday.

In it, the prime minister acknowledged the scale of mistrust that has built up around him in a sign that Labour's key election battle will be in getting its own sympathisers to turn out.

"There have been disappointments... [and] disagreements, some as over Iraq, were big," he said.

But Blair called on Labour supporters to return to the fold.

"If you value this strong economy, come out and vote for it," he asked.

"If you want a maximum 18-week waiting time for NHS operations, come out and support your Labour candidate."

The Mirror has been a traditionally staunch Labour paper but fell out badly with the government over the war in Iraq under its previous editor Piers Morgan.

Reputation

In a separate interview, the prime minister accepted that the war had caused some damage to his reputation.

"I think trust is also about the things we promised in 1997, but you are right, Iraq has been a difficult issue for me," Blair told GMTV.

"You learn something in government and that is sometimes decisions come on your desk and whichever way you go there isn't a fence to sit on.

"With Iraq I had to decide, would the world be better without Saddam or with him. In the end I think it's better he is out.

"But I have never disrespected someone with a different point of view. It's up to people to judge and they will have to make a judgment about it.

"In the end, that decision was immensely difficult but I think I opted for the right course.

"Sometimes there are these decisions and which ever way you go it's going to be a nightmare."

WMD

The Liberal Democrats and nationalist parties have sought to capitalise on the failure to find weapons of mass destruction and the continuing instability in the country.

Health secretary John Reid told the BBC that the economy and the health service would be the key factors in deciding how people vote.

"The most important issue to people... is not actually Iraq. Less than 10 per cent say that is the most important," he said.

"The biggest issues by far are the economy, the NHS, immigration, law and order and about less than 10 per cent Iraq."