Election '97: Media Watch: Business stars fail screen test as Labour reels out its video

When the Conservative Party held a press conference on Wednesday to give a preview of its first party election broadcast, its vast press centre at Conservative Central Office in Smith Square dwarfed the four journalists who turned up.

The same could not be said yesterday, when Labour's preview was attended by six times as many reporters. The reason was summed up by one who wanted to be there "when the next Jennifer's Ear breaks", referring to Labour's 1992 broadcast about the two-tier National Health Service that ended in a debacle about who the real Jennifer was.

All this attention had quite an effect on Labour's chief spin- doctor, Peter Mandelson. When the Mail men asked for a transcript of the broadcast he told them it had already been sent to Conservative Central Office, implying there would be no need for the journalists to do the Tories' bidding. He also continued his spat with The Daily Telegraph's political editor, George Jones. When Mr Jones raised his hand, Mr Mandelson asked him what he wanted. In November Mr Jones walked out of a Labour press conference after being baited by Mr Mandelson as a Conservative stooge.

When the Independent asked about the industrial-relations record of business people chosen by Labour to star in its broadcast last night the question was dismissed, even though one of the stars, Sir Terence Conran, was called a "medieval despot" by the leader of the Manufacturing Science and Finance Union (MSF) last year.

The broadcast starred the Granada chief executive, Gerry Robinson, Sir Terence, founder of Habitat and Anita Roddick, of the Body Shop.

"If you look at what Tony Blair has done in actually creating New Labour, it is a phenomenal change," said Mr Robinson, while the camera filmed him being interviewed on a television in one of his rental shops. "I have no doubt at all in having set out very clear objectives for Labour in government that Tony Blair will also deliver that."

Sir Terence was in dispute with the Manufacturing Science and Finance Union (MSF) last year because, as chairman of the Design Museum in London, he refused to recognise it, even although a majority voted to negotiate terms of employment through the MSF.

Roger Lyons, MSF secretary, said last year: "The Conran image is of a soft sofa in a shop window but the harsh reality is of a medieval despot. There is a climate of fear ... at the Design Museum which is ill at ease with the culture of a museum and the arts."