Stephen Brook :MediaGuardian
Monday April 4, 2005
The Sun today fired a warning shot across Labour's bows with a front-page editorial threatening to withdraw its support in the run-up to the general election.
Under the headline "It's make your mind up time", Britain's biggest selling daily paper says it has not yet decided whom to back in the election, expected to be called tomorrow.
"The Sun cannot say today it unhesitatingly supports Labour in the coming election," the paper says.
"Instead we are going to listen very carefully to Labour and the Tories between now and May 5 to see which party deserves the backing of our readers."
The Sun credits Tony Blair with the "visionary boldness of a world leader" and says Labour can claim as a "massive achievement" the way it had maintained Britain's international reputation.
It criticises the party for driving up taxes to "pour billions more into public services" but concedes Labour had made progress in education and health.
The warning shot from the mass circulation tabloid that prides itself on influencing electoral outcomes will galvanise both parties into redoubling efforts to win its approval.
Ever since Michael Howard became Conservative party leader last year, the Sun has shown a greater willingness to support his policies but an uncharacteristic reluctance to emphatically declare its support one way or the other.
Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, has a firm policy of backing electoral winners, but the Sun's political editor, Trevor Kavanagh, is said to have lobbied editor Rebekah Wade to switch support to the Tories, arguing they more closely match the paper's ethos.
In an accompanying article, the Sun lists the achievements and failures of the Blair government under the headings the good, the bad and the ugly.
"Labour had just claim as a massive achievement the way, since 1997, it has maintained our international reputation, unlike the cowardly French and opportunistic Germans, who both abandoned our greatest ally, the United States, over Iraq," the editorial states.
"Tony Blair has shown the visionary boldness of a world leader. History will remember him for his determination to do what was right at a time when freedom and civilisation were under siege and other leaders wavered and appeased."
But the paper says the party has a mixed legacy in public service reform and has failed to act quickly enough.
"To sum it up, Labour's record is a mixture of successes and awful blunders. In many ways, the Conservatives speak our language, especially when it comes to Europe, illegal immigration and crime.
"We support their tough plans and believe they reflect the mood of our tolerant country. Enough is enough.
"We have finally seen then galvanise into something resembling a fighting force."
But the paper appears to damn Michael Howard with faint praise, saying he is "doing his best" but adds that his shadow cabinet still left voters cold.
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