WI gives Blair hostile reception

Mr Blair emphasised Labour's 'traditional values'

Prime Minister Tony Blair has been given a hostile reception by Women's Institute members, involving heckling and slow hand-clapping.

After what Mr Blair had hoped would be a speech to win back the political initiative from the Tories, he received poor applause and drew criticism from some audience members.

Let's hear no more rubbish about class war, as if we had to choose between caricatures of Little Lord Fauntleroy or Karl Marx

Tony Blair

Some women even walked out in protest, saying the speech was too long and too overtly political.

Mr Blair used his speech to the WI conference at Wembley to stress that traditional values lie at the heart of Labour's policies.

Returning from paternity leave, Mr Blair explained how the birth of his son Leo had given him a "renewed sense of purpose", and he called for a revival of respect and responsibility in British civic society.

But the hand-clap protest, which began mid-speech, threatened to gather pace, before WI chairman Helen Carey appealed for members to listen politely.

The prime minister appeared uneasy and dropped a section of the speech about the NHS.

Downing Street later said there was no significance in that and it had only been done to save time.

Traditional values

Forced on to the defensive in recent weeks after a series of high-profile policy launches by the Conservatives, Mr Blair said the government's spending round this summer would help ensure opportunity for all.

Mr Blair said that the government's goal of "opportunity for all" would only be delivered if the "eroded value" of "responsibility from all" was rediscovered.

Blair says he supports excellence "unashamedly"

Mr Blair insisted that traditional values could not only sit alongside modern ones, but the two complemented each other.

"The way we do it is to combine the old and the new, traditional British values of responsibility and respect for others with a new agenda of opportunity for all in a changing world."

He said he understood that fear of change, but said it was the government's and society's job to embrace it for the good.

Elitism row

Mr Blair attempted to fire the final shot in the "elitism war" which was ignited by Chancellor Gordon Brown over Oxford University.

This talk of traditional values by Mr Blair ... I think it's some kind of joke

William Hague

"Let's hear no more rubbish about class war, as if we had to choose between caricatures of Little Lord Fauntleroy or Karl Marx," he urged.

He stressed that Mr Brown and he were as one in their attitude to class and opportunity, following reports that he had been angered by the chancellor's intervention in the class war row.

"Neither of us will have any truck with old-fashioned egalitarianism that levels down. We are unashamed supporters of excellence," he said.

New Labour believed in "opportunity to all", Mr Blair said.

'Joke'

Conservative leader William Hague dismissed the speech as evidence that the government was talking not delivering.

You can't appeal in all directions at once. You've got to nail your flag to the mast

Charles Kennedy

"For him to go on about traditional values...is some kind of joke," he said.

"Nothing he has said will stop us setting the agenda because he is not setting one of his own," Mr Hague said.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said Mr Blair's attempt to reassure Middle England and the Labour heartlands had failed.

"The prime minister is trying to appeal to mulitple sets of audiences here...but the fact is you can't appeal in all directions at once. You've got to nail your flag to the mast and say what you think," he said.