Peter Mandelson’s fourth state of the race memo

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Tonight, Peter Mandelson has issued his next state of the race memo to party supporters, urging people to reject the “couple of kids in school trousers” and saying Britain “needs a work horse, not a couple of show ponies”.

And he says:

“That’s why voters who flirt with Nick Clegg are likely to end up married to David Cameron. Or, in other words, vote Nick and get Dave and George. Not a nice prospect for people with progressive values and who want Britain to move forward and grow together, not apart.”

The full update can be read below:

To: Labour members, supporters and other interested parties

Thank you for your response to the memo last week. Keep the support and the funds rolling in.

Because we are in the fight of our political lives.

We are the underdogs in this fight – always have been.

But, with as much as a third of the electorate still undecided, this election remains wide open. The polls are so volatile because people remain in a state of genuine flux.

So it is time to up the tempo and fight every inch of the way.

That is certainly what Gordon is doing. He has confounded expectations in the TV debates because he has shown his strengths – toughness, resilience, and most crucially, the man with a plan to meet the big challenges the country faces following the global financial crisis.

These challenges require a workhorse at the helm, not a couple of show ponies. It’s no time for novices.

Substance, judgement and leadership will prevail in this election

I sense that the focus is moving from the newness of the TV debates, and the performance commentary that inevitably surrounded them, to one of greater seriousness. Which party has the best policies that are going to make life easier and better? That is the question that undecided voters are asking. And which party can be relied upon to take the decisions that are right for the economy and which ensure fair shares and fair rules for all at a time of belt tightening.

I had a strong sense of this happening in the second of the TV debates, and I expect the trend to continue, culminating in the final debate this Thursday focusing on the economy.

For the second week running, Gordon’s performance ratings rose where it matters – substance, judgement, leadership and the experience to lead Britain into the future.

He showed that on both foreign and domestic policy, he is the man who best understands the issues and has what it takes to take Britain forwards.

It is these attributes – leadership, substance, and values – that will determine this election.

This is where our focus will be in the days ahead – on the economy, on public services and on fairness.

The economy rightly remains the most salient issue, and our concentration on this will remain at the core of our campaign.

It is our biggest strength and the Tories’ greatest vulnerability.

The growth figures this week showed that we are on the road to recovery but the road is bumpy.

We cannot afford to take risks. And putting George Osborne in charge of the economy at such an uncertain time looks like the most massive gamble – one that British families just cannot afford to take.

What is at stake are people’s jobs, their mortgages, their businesses, their homes and their living standards. You cannot take a risk with these things and put them in the hands of Cameron-Osborne – a couple of kids in school trousers running around getting every judgement wrong on the recession and now calling it wrong on the recovery.

They want to cut the support for the economy straight away, pulling the rug from under the recovery when it is not yet locked in.

That would put the economy back into intensive care and it will be the general public who will pay the price with their jobs and their living standards. This price would emerge at Osborne’s proposed Emergency Budget 50 days after 6 May. People should know that if they vote Tory in May they will be stung in June.

Fairness matters more when times are tough

With every day that passes in this campaign, the Tories’ paint job is peeling off and we are seeing the real Tory agenda emerging.

They entered this campaign failing to protect funding for schools and police numbers, and with commitments to scrap our guarantees for faster cancer treatment and shorter waiting times.

On Friday, David Cameron repeated his warning to the nations and regions of the UK of the cuts they are planning – whilst in the same breath reaffirming his commitment to an inheritance tax cut of £200,000 each for the 3,000 richest estates.

And this morning we learn that the Tories are planning new stealth charges for nursery places for toddlers. It’s a fresh Tory raid on middle class parents and we should make every parent aware of it before polling day. And that it comes on top of their plans to cut child tax credits, Child Trust Funds and Sure Start for middle income mums.

What kind of priorities are these?

Fairness – fair rules, fair chances and fair shares – matters more when times are tougher.

But the Tories are determined to use the global financial crisis to pivot this country backwards to the bad old Tory days of social division and North-South divide.

This is what awaits the country if the Tories win on May 6th. And that is an outcome made more, not less likely, if people vote Lib Dem in the crucial Labour/Tory marginals and, in so doing, let the Tories back in. Today, in his interviews, Nick Clegg has been making clear his hostility to Labour and his preference to side with the Tories in a coalition if this arises.

That’s why voters who flirt with Nick Clegg are likely to end up married to David Cameron.

Or, in other words, vote Nick and get Dave and George. Not a nice prospect for people with progressive values and who want Britain to move forward and grow together, not apart.

To achieve this, there is only one vote – a vote for Labour.

Thank you

Peter