'Toff Attack...' Sky News Online

Thursday, May 29, 2008

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Who's Responsible For 'Toff Nonsense'?
By James Silver

In the wake of Labour's disastrous performance at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, political columnist Kevin Maguire's blog was swamped with gloating posts from Tory supporters.

"Kevin, seriously, what's with the 'Toff Cameron' bit?" someone called "Jimmi" wanted to know.

"Are you ill? Is it now an involuntary thing that you have to write the word 'toff' in every article? Just grow up you silly little man."

Meanwhile, "John" wrote: "The 'toff' nonsense failed with Boris and again at C&N and still our Kevin is peddling it. Please continue - it's a great vote loser."

The "toff nonsense" refers to the Daily Mirror's associate editor's habit of using his columns to hammer Conservative party leader David Cameron over his upper class background.

But speaking on the phone from a family holiday in his native North East, Maguire - a staunch and likeable Brownite, who was once tipped to run the Prime Minister's communications team - laughs off his critics.

"I'm a hate-figure for certain Tories," he says. "That's just the way it is. But as long as they read my blog, I don't care."

However, there have been claims that Maguire's "toff-bashing" rhetoric was the inspiration for Labour's "class-war" stunts employed on the ground during the bruising Crewe by-election campaign.

These tactics included dispatching party activists dressed in top-hats and tails to follow the Tory candidate - and wealthy shoe-shop heir - Edward Timpson as he went out canvassing, in addition to circulating pictures of his lavish family home.

But as Conservative blogger Guido Fawkes noted, with Timpson coasting to victory, the "tough on toffs" line of attack - or what he branded "the Maguire Manifesto" - was a resounding flop.

"[It failed] spectacularly," he wrote. "The time for potent class-based politics is passed."

For his part, Maguire dismisses any suggestion that he had a hand in Labour's by-election campaign strategy.

"If only I had so much influence that I could run Labour by-election campaigns," he says.

"The problem with the toff campaign was that it was clumsily done against Edward Timpson.

"It was intended to take the attention away from the 10p tax row, but unfortunately it was mishandled and [Labour] didn't have any other message for the voters to put in its place."

During his victory speech in Crewe, Cameron condemned Labour's "negative" tactics, which he claimed had "completely backfired".

However, Maguire maintains that the Tory leader remains vulnerable to attacks about his privileged background and should expect much more of the same.

"Cameron made such a fuss about the 'toff' thing in Crewe, because he wants to protect himself from future attacks in a general election," he argues.

"But it can legitimately be argued that he's a 'toff' in the way Timpson isn't. He's an old Etonian, a direct descendant of William IV and a distant relative of the Queen, who got his first job at the Conservative party after someone from Buckingham palace put in a call on his behalf."

Warming to his theme, he continues: "Cameron is very wary of this, which is why he always complains whenever I call him a toff - something I do regularly, mainly because I know it drives him up the wall.

"When we run stories in the Mirror, his various spin-doctors lobby for me not to use the word 'toff' because it upsets him so much.

"He spends enormous amounts of time spinning himself as an ordinary guy, but it just doesn't fit with his silver spoon life."

But as a well-known "Brownite", isn't Maguire guilty of doing the PM's dirty work for him - in effect spinning on Downing Street's behalf?

He snorts: "No, if you read what I write, I keep saying that right now, the writing's on the wall, Brown's in a deep hole, things are incredibly bleak for him and Cameron's going to win the general election."

"If that's spin, then I don't think it's very positive spin from Brown's point of view."

He goes on to accuse the Conservatives of "breathtaking hypocrisy" over crying foul about the 'toff' line of attack.

"I remember when the Tories sent butlers with silver salvers and champagne bottles to chase after [Tory turned Labour front-bencher] Shaun Woodward and when they put [Labour MEP] Robert Evans's house on election leaflets. They did the same thing with [former Labour Europe minister] Dennis MacShane and sent bagpipers after Gordon Brown.

"So frankly I can't stop laughing at the hypocrisy of [Tory objections] now. What goes around, comes around."

Posted by James Silver - On Thursday, May 29, 2008

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