May poll 'overshadowed by Iraq'

Divisions in Labour over Iraq and a failure to deliver on public services have made it hard for the party to get people to run for the local elections, Theresa May has said.

The Conservative Party chairman said Labour and the Lib Dems were fielding 2,000 fewer candidates than the Tories.

But her opposite number in the Labour Party, Ian McCartney, said opinion polls suggested Tony Blair had risen in people's estimation, as a result of his stance over ousting Saddam Hussein.

For the Liberal Democrats, Simon Hughes said he had been campaigning around the UK and that between one in four and one in five of the people he met raised concerns over Iraq.

Mrs May told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme: "Labour has found it difficult to get people to stand in their name, and I think that's partly an impact of the war on their activists.

"I think it's also because an increasing number of people in the Labour Party are so disillusioned that the government has failed to deliver on its promise to improve public services."

But Mr McCartney predicted that in elections for the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament Labour would do "very well indeed".

Normality returning

"The point is that Labour has thousands of candidates in England, Scotland and Wales... we are doing very well indeed and our campaign is very effective," he said.

Mr McCartney attacked both Lib Dem councils and past Conservative administrations for their record on delivering services.

"This government is the only government in the last three generations who have increased across the board in every aspect of the public services, public sector investment."

But Mr Hughes said a raft of issues relating to health, affordable housing, the working family's tax credit, public transport through to education were causing concern to ordinary voters.

"There are lots of areas where the government has not delivered," he said.

All three politicians agreed that ordinary political concerns had to some extent been overshadowed by international events but indicated the usual cut and thrust of campaigning would resume in the run up to the 1 May polls.