Labour backfires with Cameron poster gag

Published on Saturday 3 April 2010 23:14

LABOUR appeared to have committed the first gaffe of the election campaign last night after its new poster mocking up David Cameron as TV detective Gene Hunt backfired spectacularly.

• Labour's election campaign poster depicts David Cameron as Gene Hunt on the bonnet of an Audi. Picture: PA

The poster, the idea of a Labour supporter, has Cameron's head superimposed on the Ashes To Ashes character with the caption: "Don't let him take Britain back to the 1980s."

But last night, even Labour supporters were conceding the poster may end up doing more good than harm to the Conservative cause, with Cameron now identified with one of the country's best-known TV characters.

The Tories quickly took advantage, with Cameron declaring himself "flattered" by the comparison. Meanwhile, the party produced a spoof version of the poster drawing on Hunt's catchphrase: "Fire up the Quattro. It's time for change."

The politically-incorrect fictional detective, played by Philip Glenister who appeared in both Ashes to Ashes and its forerunner Life on Mars, has become an iconic figure for millions of BBC viewers. Brutal and often corrupt, he has none the less been dubbed a "national hero" over his no-nonsense approach.

The idea for the poster came from party supporter Jacob Quagliozzi, 24, who entered a competition set up by Labour's advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi , to produce an image for the campaign.

As part of its publicity launch, Foreign Secretary David Miliband yesterday stated: "I became politically active in the 1980s. Jacob's poster is a powerful reminder of the damage which the Tories did to Britain in the 80s."

But any hope that Labour's appeal to its own supporters for ideas might win the party plaudits was fast disappearing last night. The party's former general secretary, Peter Watt, told Sky News: "I spoke to my wife last night who said I think it makes him (Cameron] look dashing, which I don't quite think was the intention."

Leading Conservatives said Labour had shot itself in the foot. Tory blogger Iain Dale said: "This is a brilliant poster for the Conservative Party because it totally undermines Labour's message about Cameron. They've been trying to portray him as posh boy, as Bullingdon boy, but here is portrayed as a working-class hero." A party spokesman added: "We wish we had thought of it."

None the less, the poster is now expected to be displayed on electronic billboards from London to Manchester. Labour claims its idea of calling for poster ideas from supporters shows it has understood how to campaign in the digital age.

However, the Conservatives themselves were responding in kind. One Tory online blogger was circulating a mock-up of Prime Minister Gordon Brown perched on an Austin Allegro in flared trousers under the slogan: "Back to debt, decline and the 1970s with Gordon Brown."

The poster war will continue tomorrow when the Conservatives launch a series of pre- election posters portraying a grinning Brown at 850 sites in England and Wales, attacking the Prime Minister's record. Its national advertising push is part-financed by the party's billionaire chairman, Lord Ashcroft.

Cameron yesterday used a newspaper article to argue that Labour had inflicted "devastation and waste" on the UK and promised to deliver "a different style of government".

And despite Labour having sought to capitalise on the Tory leader's privileged background, Cameron said he was "proud" of his upbringing. He claims that his mother taught him that "life was about more than making money".

Turning to his plans for a future Conservative administration, he said he wanted to "crush" bureaucracy. He also said he would run a very different style of government to Brown, pledging go run a "quietly" effective government. He claimed he had the "right temperament" to be prime minister.

He wrote: "The last four years have felt like the longest job interview in the world."

&#149 The Conservative party is heading for an single figure overall majority according to an opinion poll published last night. The survey for the Sunday Express put David Cameron's Conservatives 11 points clear of Labour, which would make Cameron prime minister with a perilous overall majority of fewer than 10 seats. Conservatives scored 38 per cent, Labour 27 per cent and Liberal Democrats 20 per cent in the survey carried out by pollsters Angus Reid Public Opinion.