ANGLOSPHERE OR BUST:

The Sun backs Blair (Nicholas Watt, April 20, 2005, Guardian Unlimited)

Tony Blair will receive a major boost tomorrow when the Sun endorses Labour for the general election on May 5, citing the prime minister's bravery over the Iraq war.

Labour strategists, who regarded the Sun's endorsement in 1997 as one of the key moments of the campaign, will sigh with relief that Rupert Murdoch has not consummated his flirtation with Michael Howard. No Tory leader since Margaret Thatcher has been wooed in the same way as Mr Howard, who was invited to address the News Corporation annual jamboree in Cancun, Mexico.

The decision by the Sun editor, Rebekah Wade, after close consultation with her Australian born boss, will come as little surprise to Labour and the Conservatives. Mr Murdoch is always careful to back winners and he has regularly lavished praise on the prime minister for standing firm during the Iraq war.

But speculation that the Sun might return to the Tory fold for the first time since 1992 was fuelled when Mr Murdoch told the BBC's business editor, Jeff Randall, that he was impressed by Mr Howard's leadership of the Tory party. But in remarks which received little attention at the time, he also said he would never forget Mr Blair's steadfastness during the Iraq war.

The cold hard fact is that the Tories still don't offer a big enough difference from Tony Blair to warrant backing them.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 20, 2005 5:44 PM