Tony Blair, the Labour leader, yesterday launched Labour's manifesto not only setting out his stall for the General Election on May 1 but offering the electorate a 10 part contract by which they could judge him for the General Election after next.

Labour's manifesto was surprising only to the extent it held no surprises. Mr Blair spurned any election gimmicks, choosing instead to make a direct appeal to the electorate to trust him.

As Labour published its manifesto the latest opinion polls produce diverse figures. A Gallup poll in The Daily Telegraph cuts Labour's lead from 26% a month ago to 21%. It gives Labour 52%, down 2%. the Conservatives 31%, up 3%. The Liberal Democrats' share has fallen from 12.5% to 11%.

A Harris poll in the Independent shows that Labour has maintained a 24% lead over the Conservatives on 52% compared to their 28%. The Liberal Democrats got 14%.

Last night's Evening Standard poll carried out by Mori gave Labour a 32% lead over the Conservatives. If that is reflected on polling day the Conservatives would lose 32 of their 41 London seats.

Criticising the Conservatives for winning an election in 1992 on a series of promises and then systematically breaking them Mr Blair said: ''For that very reason we make a virtue of the fact that our manifesto does not promise the earth. It does not say it can do everything.

''There are no magic wands or instant solutions. What we do say is: Britain deserves better, and Britain can be better. And we show how. We do so by promising only what we are sure we can deliver. They are our bond of trust, most of all my bond of trust, with the people of Britain.''

Promising to make education the No 1 priority, within the contract they have repeated the pledges not to raise the basic or top rates of income tax, to keep inflation low and use the windfall tax on the excess profits of privatised utilities to take 250,000 young people off benefit and into work, cut NHS waiting lists, and reduce class sizes to 30 or under for five, six or seven year olds.

The Conservatives' rebuttal machine immediately accused

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New Labour of being so desperate to win the General Election they were prepared to promise anything even if it meant deliberately misleading the public about their policies.

''This strategy means New Labour are quite happy to issue contradictory and deliberately vague policies statements so that they can satisfy the conflicting demands of rival interest groups. In short, Labour are happy to appear to be all things to all men''.

On the thorny question of trade union representation the manifesto categorically stated that key elements of the 1980s trade union reforms - on ballots, picketing, and industrial action - were here to stay.

It confirmed too the long held Labour policy that people should be free to join or not to join a trade union. Mr Blair, predicting Conservative scaremongering on trades unions, made no apology for Labour's commitment to trade union representation and emphatically denied there would be any return ''to the bad old days''.

''Where they do decide to join and where a majority of the relevant workforce vote in a ballot for the union to represent them, the union should be recognised. This promotes good industrial relations.''

The deputy Prime Minister, Michael Heseltine, rubbished the idea of Labour's manifesto as a contract with the British people, claiming it was instead a contract with the British trades unions.

''First of all Tony Blair promises them new union rights. The most far reaching is to give the unions a statutory right to recognition. Labour would give the recognition right to even very small units of the workforce, provided a judge decided they were a 'relevant' unit. So the Just-in-Time production of our manufacturing industry could be bought to a grinding halt by a few militant workers.''

The Liberal Democrats meanwhile complained that the Labour manifesto was a huge disappointment. Treasury spokesman Malcolm Bruce said: ''Tony Blair vowed to be a 'warrior' against complacency yet this is the most complacent manifesto from any non-Conservative party in recent time. On issue after issue Labour offer nothing in this manifesto to solve the grave problems which we face.''