Cameron has to stop the Tories panicking

Brown is targeting Tory voters
and now has Tebbit helping him, reports donald malcolm

First Margaret Thatcher allowed herself to be photographed with Gordon Brown. Now Lord Tebbit, truest of her true blue disciples, has rubbed David Cameron's nose in it.

Interviewed in today's Times, Tebbit says Brown is the true heir to Thatcher and that Cameron is out of touch with ordinary people.

But Cameron's bad day has only just begun. When Gordon Brown's makeover was in its early stages last autumn, he tried out a new relaxed approach at the Scottish Labour conference in Oban. Sitting in an armchair for an hour-long question and answer session, he was relaxed, witty, charming. Today, he will repeat that performance for the full Labour conference in Bournemouth today - all in the cause of demolishing David Cameron's Conservatives.

It follows Monday's speech when, without once mentioning Cameron or the Tories,

Labour’s talk of a snap election is designed to get Cameron back into the Tory comfort zone of immigration and EU-scepticism

Brown made clear his intention to invade natural Conservative territory in pursuit of what are variously dubbed 'Gordon's Tories' or 'Blues for Brown' - conservative-inclined voters attracted by Brown's combination of socially conservative policies and strong leadership.

A YouGov poll taken since that speech puts Labour 11 points ahead of the Tories - the biggest margin in any poll since Brown became Prime Minister.

Cameron's key task when Tories gather in Blackpool next week will be to keep his party from panic. But Labour's continuing talk about a snap election is largely designed to induce that panic and to get Cameron to retreat into the Tory comfort zone of crime, immigration and Euro-scepticism.

One MP close to Brown told The First Post: "[A snap election] is not going to happen but I am talking it up like mad. It spooks the Tories."

Cameron now has a mountain to climb. And as Tebbit's intervention proves, the danger of his party turning on him - just as they have with his predecessors - is never far away.