The Sun turns its back on Labour

Published: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:45:20

The Sun newspaper has dramatically withdrawn its support for the Labour party and pledged to back the Conservatives at next year's general election. The tabloid's headline on Wednesday simply reads: "The Sun: Labour's lost it". The sub-heading reads: "After 12 long years in power, this government has lost its way. Now it's lost The Sun's support too."

The news will come as a bitter blow to Gordon Brown who attempted to resurrect his party's election chances in a passionate speech to the Labour annual conference in Brighton on Tuesday. The prime minister unveiled a stream of policy initiatives and continually attacked the Tories, warning of the dangers of a Conservative government. The Sun, though, appears to have been unimpressed with the prime minister and his vision for the future, so much so that it has now decided to support the opposition.

Speaking to Sky News, the paper's political editor George Pascoe Watson said: "We felt Labour had it within them to change the course of Britain's future. "But we feel now that they have failed the country and are letting people down." He warned though that while the newspaper was "impressed" with David Cameron and his party: "We will always be critical friends of the Conservatives, as we were with Labour, we will tell them when they are going wrong."

A statement on the second page of the paper declares: "The Sun believes – and prays – that the Conservative leadership can put the great back in Great Britain." The energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband, however, remained defiant on the BBC's Newsnight programme on Tuesday when asked about The Sun's decision to switch allegiance. He told host Jeremy Paxman: "People win elections, not newspapers."

Mr Brown then later released almost exactly the same statement claiming it was the general public that decided the outcome of elections, not national newspapers. The Tories, unsurprisingly, have welcomed the news. Party chairman Eric Pickles said the Conservatives now had the opportunity to persuade Sun readers that it was them, not Labour, who could be trusted to form the next government.

The Sun had famously backed Labour since 1997 when Tony Blair swept into Downing Street in a landslide victory. Since then the party is reported to have gone out of its way to maintain the paper's support, and while newspaper endorsements do not necessarily affect their readers, the loss of The Sun will be a devastating blow for a prime minister already under severe pressure.

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