DAVID Cameron's local election victory has been hailed as a "Tony Blair" moment, as the party's triumph at the ballot box appeared to echo the wins ahead of the 1997 Labour landslide.
The Conservative leader yesterday embarked on a celebratory tour across England and Wales, after his party secured a massive 44 per cent of the vote, against Labour's 24 per cent.
It was the biggest drubbing in 40 years, with the Tories achieving
breakthroughs in the Midlands and the south of England, securing their top target of Bury in Greater Manchester and taking control of Nuneaton and Bedworth, and Southampton.
Mr Cameron was in a jubilant mood, but was careful to avoid sounding triumphalist. "This is a very big moment for the Conservative Party," he said, before adding, "I don't want anyone to think we would deserve to win an election just on the back of a failing government." The results were not just a protest against Gordon Brown, but a positive vote for the Tories, he insisted.
The Tory leader said the party had to prove to people it could make changes in public services, tackle crime and "all the other issues that really matter to all of us". But while the parallel with Mr Blair was all too easy to make, the Tory leader will have to brace himself for increased scrutiny over his policies.
Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University said: "It is not a story that means the Conservatives are bound to win the (general] election."
A panel made up of party strategists and campaign managers predicted a slim Tory win at the next general election: 78 per cent of the panel forecast that Mr Cameron would win the next election.
But success at the council elections – where people often vote on local issues or are more promiscuous over whom they support – cannot be automatically extrapolated to a general election result.
A Labour Party spokesman also warned that Mr Cameron would come under a more sustained attack.
He said: "They think they are the government in waiting, so let's treat them as such with a level of scrutiny that will be far and beyond what has taken place thus far." Ministers yesterday lined up to echo this mantra.
Until now, Mr Cameron has given away few policy details but has presented a more moderate brand of Conservatism to win over the centre ground. With his new mandate he will be able to ward off pressure from traditionalists, who are urging him to take bolder steps with cutting taxes.
On the face of it, the result – a gain of 256 seats with 44 per cent of the vote – echoed the popularity that Mr Blair received more than a decade ago in the local election victory for Labour in 1995.
Two years later, Mr Blair stormed into No10 with a landslide general election victory as John Major's Tory government imploded.
Privately, Gordon Brown is said to agree with elements of the comparison to Mr Major – but only in his 1992 guise, when he was widely predicted to lose the general election, but won.
Throughout the campaign, the Tories were quietly confident but played down their prospects for fear of their supporters becoming complacent. A Labour source admitted the party had played a "blinder" in the outer suburbs of London, where the Tories employed a more subtle campaign to encourage voters, despite their colourful candidate, Boris Johnson.
In another boost for the Tories, bookies started paying out to punters who had bet on Mr Johnson becoming London mayor, hours before the result had been declared. Mr Cameron earlier said a win for Mr Johnson would be a positive sign.
One of the most significant results was the Tory triumph in Bury, in Greater Manchester, which the party had been targeting for more than two decades.
During a whistle-stop tour of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, where the Tories ended 34 years of Labour control, Mr Cameron insisted that no political heartlands were off-limits to the Conservatives.
"I don't believe ever in politics there are heartlands that are unwinnable. No seat is entirely safe," he said.
This was underscored by the party's performance in Wales, where it won the Vale of Glamorgan to add to Monmouthshire as a Conservative-controlled council. George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, hailed the Tories' success as a "springboard" for the next general election.
"We are winning all across the country – that is the springboard," he said.
"People are voting against Gordon Brown and his failed government, but it's also a positive vote for the Conservatives. People are fed up with the government; they don't have to vote Conservative, they could stay at home."
But Alan Duncan, a member of the shadow cabinet, warned against complacency.
"We are not going to jump with joy and say 'ha ha we've got it in the bag'," he said.
Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the Tories had still failed to take big cities in the north of England.
He said the Conservatives were "nowhere" in Manchester, Newcastle, Hull or Sheffield.
The full article contains 855 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
