The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, described in a leaked report as "all spin and no substance", hit back at the Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, yesterday with a catalogue of insults.
Asked to respond to an internal report from one of his senior advisers that he was perceived as "pandering" and "lacking conviction" by focus groups, Mr Blair ducked the question.
Instead he took the rare step of using his weekly parliamentary platform to spell out what he said was the public's less than flattering view of the opposition leader, quoting from his own party's research.
"[Hague] challenged me to read out the focus groups. So I'll read them out about him," Mr Blair told parliament, to a backdrop of support from Labour benches.
"This is what they say: Boring; false; he irritates me greatly; pathetic; drip; nonentity; no substance; no personality . . . complete waste of time, no policies," Mr Blair, shouting to be heard over storms of laughter, read from his list.
"At the end . . . : Very unimpressive team, particularly William Hague," Mr Blair said to the delight of Labour MPs, accustomed to the cut and thrust of weekly Prime Minister's questions but unused to such a feast of abuse.
Mr Blair was responding to a confidential internal Labour memo, published at the weekend by the Sunday Times, which cited private Labour Party surveys of voter opinion.
"TB [Tony Blair] is pandering, lacking conviction, unable to hold to a position for more than a few weeks and lacking the guts to be able to tough it out," Mr Hague quoted the leaked memo as saying.
"TB lacks conviction, he's all spin and presentation, he says things to please people, not because he believes them. TB has not delivered. He is out of touch," he read.
"Does TB agree with that or is it just the rest of us?" demanded Mr Hague, who took over a party in the doldrums three years ago but recently stole the political initiative with a series of populist policy announcements.
The leak capped a disastrous week for Mr Blair, who was heckled by the normally demure Women's Institute for delivering a politically charged speech to the conservative matrons.