Election '97: Angry PM hits out on matter of trust

John Major last night stirred the controversy over the Tory depiction of Tony Blair as Chancellor Helmut Kohl's dummy, saying the nation would be mad to trust a man who changed his mind "as often as a grasshopper jumps".

The Conservative leader told a party rally in Manchester that while Mr Blair had repeatedly appealed for the voters' trust, he was not to be trusted on anything from defence and terrorism through to small businesses and inheritance tax.

"Imagine Britain had trusted what Mr Blair had said in the past. In 1983, he would have taken Britain out of Europe altogether. In 1986, he would have surrendered our nuclear weapons. In 1986, he would have stopped the creation of the Single Market. In 1991, he would have signed Britain up to the Social Chapter and - if he'd followed his leader - the single currency, too.

"While the Mr Blair of 1994 boasted he would never see Britain isolated in Europe. `Trust me, trust me, trust me, trust me,' he's pleaded, as he's drifted from withdrawal through indecision to uncontrolled surrender. Mr Blair changes his mind as often as a grasshopper jumps."

But the Prime Minister then began to mix his imagery, saying that if Mr Blair was representing Britain at the next European summit, European leaders would eat him alive. "It would be like sending a fly to a spiders' convention," he warned.

Mr Major said that along with surrender abroad, Labour was offering division at home, with its plans for devolution. He said Mr Blair would "take the ancient, functioning constitution of this kingdom ... and gash through the tapestry with a vandal's knife. The consequence would be a ... Disunited Kingdom drifting towards a United States of Europe".