THE British Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair, has demanded that the Home Secretary, Mr Michael Howard, apologise for suggesting that voters could not trust Labour to be tough on terrorism.
Mr Blair said Mr Howard had breached a private agreement between the parties that they should stand together in the face of terrorist attacks.
Labour officials said that under the agreement with the Government, the party always spoke to Downing Street and the Home Office before making statements on bombings to ensure both Government and Opposition put up a united front.
The Home Secretary had said that the police needed tough powers to fight terrorism effectively, powers provided by the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the annual renewal of which Mr Blair had never voted for.
"He led Labour MPs into the division lobbies to vote against the renewal of the Act. His vote, and the votes of his party, show that you cannot trust Labour to be tough on terrorism."
Last night Mr Blair stressed that Labour had been "steadfast" in supporting the Government in its pursuit of peace in Northern Ireland. "Our response to the bombings today was co ordinated with Downing Street and the Home Office, as is usual, to underline the bipartisan approach. For Michael
Howard now to use this for politics is a disgrace and he should apologise."
Labour's deputy leader, Mr John Prescott, also stirred up inter party ill feeling during an election campaign visit to Luton airport. On a Labour government's policy on, the North, he said, we are going to sit down and talk. In that sense there is no difference between us and the Tories." But he added "The peace process broke down when Major decided in order to stay in power he had to do all sorts of deals over Northern Ireland."