Blair to address conference

Tuesday, 28 September 2004 12:00 AM

Tony Blair will today address the Labour Party conference, most likely for the last time before the general election.

With the election widely anticipated for May 5th, Mr Blair is expected to set out his vision of a third term Labour government, and attempt to heal the rift between party members over Iraq.

The Prime Minister is expected to tell those assembled in Brighton that, although some mistakes were made in the lead up to invading Iraq, the country was right to rid the world of Saddam Hussein.

But Mr Blair's speech - which many observers are billing as the most important of his political career - looks set to be have a shadow cast over it by Ken Bigley's situation in Iraq and a pro-hunting demonstration scheduled to occur at the same time as his address.

Mr Bigley was taken hostage by Iraqi insurgents on September 18th and Paul Bigley yesterday hit out at the Prime Minister for not doing enough to save his brother's life.

Protestors from the Countryside Alliance also appear set to deflect attention from the content of the Prime Minister's speech with 15,000 people due to attend a planned demo outside the conference centre.

They are angry at the Government's plan to make fox hunting illegal and have already held a vociferous protest outside Parliament earlier this month.

In the speech itself, Mr Blair is thought to want to turn the focus away from the ongoing war in Iraq and on global terrorism and talk in detail about health, education, transport and aid for "hard working families".

He will pledge extra resources for secondary education, childcare support and the further training of workers.

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