Gordon launches his own fightback

PARTY managers at Labour's Brighton conference have launched their fightback - but they will have a nervous seven months wait to find out if it has been as succesasful as the Evening Star's campaign!

Fightback was emblazoned across the conference platform on Sunday when Gordon Brown urged delegates not to be defeatist but join him as he tries to make a return journey to Downing Street.

The party faithful who bothered to turn up - the room was only about 60per cent full - politely applaused, unlike in previous years when Labour delegates would cheer to the rafters the opening speech of the leader.

Labour is now firmly the underdog against David Cameron's Conservatives, and the party needs to take a lesson from a fightback campaign.

The Evening Star's fightback has been successful because it has engaged and supported the local community as Suffolk overcomes the recession. It has been been on the side of Ipswich and surrounding areas to boost confidence in the local economy.

Labour has a long way to go to match that. It needs to demonstrate to voters that it has the energy for another term in government.

With Gordon Brown's opinion poll ratings standing at an all-time low, the Liberal Demopcrats are ahead of Labour in the latest poll - cunducted just after the LibDem conference finished.

Mr Brown and the party have everything to lose and need the fightback message to be taken up by delegates as they return to their constituencies. They have to get the voters fully on board, but so far it is looking a lost cause.

Attending his first conference as an election candidate, Adam Leeder was far from despondent. He believed that fightback was a strong message to uplift both delegates and the public.

"It is our rallying cry," said Mr Leeder, who will be contesting Suffolk Coastal at the election. "It recognises that Labour has its backs to the wall in an honest and effective way. We can't let the Tories destroy our 12 years of hard work."