'The Sun' sets on Brown's new Labour

The Labour Party is "exhausted" and has "lost it", The Sun newspaper said yesterday as it switched allegiance to the Conservatives.

Rupert Murdoch's influential tabloid backed the Tories to win the next election, saying Britain was "crying out for change".

The tabloid - which is the biggest selling daily in Britain - had backed Labour since 1997 when it switched from traditional Tory leanings.

Its move came just hours after Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave his last main party conference speech before the general election expected in the spring.

The Sun's front page leader column said: "Twelve years ago, Britain was crying out for change from a divided, exhausted government. Today we are there again.

"In 1997, "New" Labour, shorn of its destructive hard-Left doctrines and with an energetic and charismatic leader, seemed the answer. Tony Blair said things could only get better, and few doubted him. But did they get better?"

It concluded: "The Sun believes - and prays - that the Conservative leadership can put the great back into Great Britain."

George Pascoe-Watson, the newspaper's political editor, said the paper took the decision after listening to Mr Brown's speech yesterday.

The premier did not spend enough time talking about crucial issues like Afghanistan and law and order, he said, while some of his announcements made on public spending were uncosted.

Mr Pascoe-Watson told Sky News: "We warned back in 2005 that Labour was on its last chance.

"We feel now after four years that they have failed the country and they are letting Sun readers down."

He denied that Sun readers would find it difficult to support Eton-educated David Cameron.

"We at the Sun don't care about anybody's background - what matters to us is who has the dynamism, energy and the ideals.

"We do feel we have been impressed by David Cameron, of course we will be a critical friend to the Tories as we have been to Labour."

The support of The Sun is much sought after. Tony Blair made it a top priority to woo Mr Murdoch as he looked to topple the Tories in 1997.

Just six weeks before Labour's landslide victory The Sun finally came out in support of Mr Blair.

Before that though the paper had been true blue - and a big supporter of Margaret Thatcher's Britain of the 1980s.

Cabinet minister Ed Miliband, who is co-ordinating Labour's election manifesto, conceded it would be better for Labour to have the newspaper's backing, but said voters, not the media, had the final say.

"I suppose I take an old-fashioned view about this which is that people decide elections not newspapers and let the people decide," he told BBC2's Newsnight.

"It is not that I am not bothered - I want as many people as possible to support us and it would be better if The Sun was supporting us.

"But I think the Sun has made the wrong decision."