ELECTIONS DISASTER AHEAD, SECRET REPORT WARNS BLAIR

TONY Blair has been warned to brace himself for an election disaster in Labour heartlands next year.

He will be told this week that Labour's traditional supporters are set to desert the party in droves at the local elections and European and Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections in May and June.

Party campaign organisers will tell him that many traditional supporters feel betrayed by Mr Blair and his New Labour. They will also warn him that old and new voters are disgusted with reports of corruption in areas where Labour has a stranglehold.

And they will tell him that many people are fed up with poor services and incompetence in Labour-controlled councils.

In heartlands like the North East, Liverpool, Scotland and Wales millions of voters are expected to either stay at home on polling day - or vote Liberal Democrat.

A top secret document leaked to the Sunday Mirror reveals the scale of the concern in the Liverpool party - which one North West Labour MP said reflected worries throughout Labour's heartlands.

The report has been submitted, along with others from regions throughout the UK to the organisation sub-committee of Labour's ruling body, the National Executive.

It warns that Labour, which lost control of the council in a "catastrophic" result in May, could lose another 11 seats to the Liberal Democrats in the local elections next May.

It points out that at the General Election in May 1997 the party won 77 per cent of the vote in Liverpool - but only 27 per cent 12 months later.

The report says: "The fabric of the party in Liverpool will continue to decline as demoralisation deepens and the distance between the voters and the party may become so great that it proves impossible to re-establish the relationship for other elections - not least the European election, and even the next Parliamentary election."

The report also highlights the split between Old Labour and the Blairites in the party - with the factions leaking stories to the media. It says: "The group is not united or coherent. There is in fact a very clear division within the group, with bitter opposing views expressed on both sides.

"Defections, dis-loyalty and dereliction of duty on the part of some councillors have been a perpetual problem. This has had an adverse effect in many areas."

A senior North West Labour backbencher said: "This report is echoed in other Labour strongholds. The Prime Minister and the party could be in for a devastating shock next Spring." Liberal Democrat frontbencher and election campaigns chief Nick Harvey claimed last night that they had Labour on the run in the inner cities.

"Years of sleaze and mismanagement and growing disappointment with the Labour Government helped the Liberal Democrats to make major gains from Labour in last May's local elections," he said.

Mike Storey, Liberal Democrat leader of Liverpool council, said: "The Liverpool report highlights the disastrous state of Labour in local government."

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