Blair Leeds gaffe exposes Labour's emptiness, says Exley-Moore

9.37.47am UTC (GMT +0000) Sat 23rd Apr 2005

When Tony Blair was confronted by an angry student in Leeds, he let slip the emptiness at the heart of new Labour. The student who had in 1997 worked to get Labour MP Lawrie Quinn elected in Scarborough and Whitby attacked Tony Blair for the war on Iraq, and said she would voting Liberal Democrat on May 5th.

'If you don't vote for Lawrie and vote Liberal Democrat,' Mr. Blair said, ' it'll just let the Tories in.'

'So,' said a gleeful Tania Exley-Moore, 'the only reason to vote Labour is that they're not the Tories. Mr Blair is wrong: every Liberal Democrat vote is a vote towards a Liberal Democrat MP. It's a sign that Labour is rattled and they see Scarborough and Whitby as vulnerable. And they're right: the local radio and TV are calling it a three way marginal, and what I'm hearing on the doorstep, on the phone and by email is that the Labour vote is crumbling.'

''Tony Blair was wrong about the war in Iraq and he's wrong about the election in Scarborough and Whitby: you want a candidate who will make a difference, vote Liberal Democrat, and as I said in the Missions to Seamen in Whitby on Friday evening, I would never vote with the party whip if the issue was bad for this area.'