Major takes a lesson from US President in hunt for image

John Major is to hold a series of American-style "presidential" briefings in the run-up to the general election in an attempt to gain an advantage over Tony Blair.

As fresh crises hit the Conservative Party in the form of a new sex scandal and another dismal opinion poll, the Prime Minister promised to give on- the-record press conferences which will win him valuable media coverage. He has not held a gathering of this sort since June 1995 when he resigned the party leadership at a press conference in the Downing Street garden.

Government strategists believe the plan will give Mr Major an extra air of authority of the kind to which United States presidents aspire.

They also think it will put the Labour leader on the defensive. If he does not respond in kind the Conservatives can claim he has something to hide, and if he does they hope he will look slippery as he fails to put flesh on his policies.

The initiative will follow the launch tomorrow of a new multi-million pound poster campaign with the message that a Labour government would end in tears.

Mr Major said he would hold daily press conferences once the election had been announced and that he was "keeping an open mind" on a televised debate with Mr Blair. "I hope that I can get directly through to the public without having my views enshrined in someone else's words.

"So in future if people read 'friends of John Major say' they can discount it. The media will have the opportunity of asking me directly and I will tell them directly," he said.

A Labour spokesman said the Tories' new initiative held no terrors for the party. Mr Blair had held hundreds of press conferences and would continue to do so.

"What the Tories are running away from is a TV debate. Name the date and name the place and we will be there," he said.

There was more bad news for Mr Major yesterday as a Gallup poll revealed that voters now believe that taxes are as likely to go up under the Conservatives as under Labour.

In a television interview yesterday, the Prime Minister said both taxes and mortgage rates would go up if there was a Labour government. He also claimed he was not going to run a personalised "smear" campaign against Mr Blair. Asked about reports that Labour and the Liberal Democrats had made progress in talks about joint constitutional reforms, Mr Major said it was a "profoundly dangerous'' development .

He refused to comment on reports that a Conservative back-bench MP, Jerry Hayes, had a gay relationship with an 18-year-old researcher. Mr Hayes yesterday denied that the relationship, in the early 1990s, was sexual and said he was consulting his solicitor. The allegations come just days after the Prime Minister emphasised his commitment to family values.

Lib-Lab talks, page 2

Presidential style, page 2

Leader, page 11

Donald Macintyre, page 13