Labour Party opponents of electoral reform have announced the launch of a national campaign to persuade voters to opt for the current voting system in any referendum on the issue.

The have also declared their aim of engineering a confrontation at next year's Labour conference.

Meanwhile, Tory leader William Hague has reiterated his readiness to work with anti-reform Labour MPs and others to defeat the "dog's breakfast" of proposals published in the Jenkins Report. on Thursday.

Middlesborough Labour MP Stuart Bell, chairman of Labour's First Past The Post Group, announced the national campaign would bring together MPs, business and trade unions which are opposed to change.

Lord Jenkins: HIs report dismissed as a "dog's breakfast"

He also said there would be an internal Labour campaign to "maintain majority opposition within the party to change".

The AEEU engineering union, which has played a central role within Labour in mobilising and bankrolling its anti-electoral reformers, also announced it would continue to support the group.

The union has already spent at least £10,000 on the campaign to prevent Labour moving towards endorsing proportional representation for the House of Commons.

At a Westminster news conference Mr Bell announced that a steering committee would be set up to organise a national campaign against the Jenkins Report, which on Thursday recommended a broadly proportional electoral system for the Commons.

Mr Bell described the Jenkins Report as "pig in the poke proposals".

The MP said the campaign would be up and running by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Labour MPs will organise within the Labour Party to raise more funds from unions and local parties, and to campaign against change.

Their tactics will include ensuring that a maximum number of resolutions on the agenda for next year's party conference will defend the present system and holding seminars for party members.

AEEU general secretary Ken Jackson said: "We will work with all those committed to a strong Labour government without being in hock to minority parties.

"Labour will win the next election by delivering its promises, not by appeasing the Liberals ... We must focus on what is important to most people in Britain - schools, hospitals and jobs.

"Tinkering with the way we vote will not win us the next election."

Hague: Pledges to "bend every sinew"

Tory leader William Hague repeated his intention of joining forces with Labour anti-reformers to ensure the Jenkins Report plans are not implemented.

"We will work with Labour MPs, with trades unionists and all groups in society who are willing to stand up for strong, democratic government," he said in a speech in his Richmond, Yorkshire, constituency.

"And if the prime minister plucks up the courage to press ahead with this unnecessary change, we will bend every sinew in our efforts to stop him destroying one of the cornerstones of our democracy."

Mr Hague's comments came soon after former Conservative prime minister John Major repeated his own firm support for the current first-past-the-post electoral system.

The announcement of the new campaign came on the same day it was disclosed that the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust had given the cross-party pro-reform Make Votes Count campaign a donation understood to be in the region of £100,000.