Dejected Labour will let Tories in; HAIN IN WARNING TO PARTY.

Byline: SAM LISTER

LABOUR members have become sullen and too embarrassed to campaign for the party, Welsh Secretary Peter Hain will admit tomorrow.

In an astonishingly frank speech to delegates at Labour''s annual conference, the cabinet minister intends to warn members the downcast mood spanning the party from the very top to bottom is paving the way for Tory leader David Cameron to take power.

If the party continues to behave as if it is inevitable, the Tories will win - throwing away more than a decade of Labour achievements, he will add.

At Labour fight back meetings in Wales I have been asking everyone a question and I repeat it here - do we want to win?, Mr Hain will ask.

Not ' Yes, of course we do, or okay, why not? No, I mean do we really, really want to win? Do we really, really want our Labour Government back in power? I ask because unless we do, unless you do, then we all might as well wrap conference up now, go home, put our feet up and wait for David Cameron to give that smarmy smile of his from the steps of Number 10 next year.

That''s what will happen if we all keep behaving as we have been for too long. Some trade union leaders and other senior colleagues predicting a Tory Government, party members sullen and reluctant or too embarrassed to campaign.

All of us continuing to behave as if a Tory win is inevitable, seemingly ready to throw away thirteen years of Labour investment in schools and hospitals, to hand over everything we have achieved - minimum wage, tax credits, massive public spending increases, trebling our overseas aid budget doubling the Welsh budget, devolution for Peter Hain

Wales, Northern Ireland settlement, absolutely everything to those scheming right wing Tories.

Mr Hain insists that while pollsters have killed Labour off the election is still there to be won. He wants to jolt party faithful into fighting back by laying bare his vision of the what he believes is the very real threats to services a Tory government would pose.

He will add: What I find really offensive is how David Cameron and George Osborne so transparently relish chance to make cuts, to exploit this global crisis to do what even Thatcher could not do - slash and burn local government and regional benefit levels which means lower pensions, disability and unemployment payments for low income areas like Wales. Also in Wales ending free prescriptions, abolishing free bus travel for pensioners, and abolishing European funding programmes.

Labour''s annual conference, this year held in Brighton, will get fully under way tomorrow and will be the last one before a general election must be held.

CAPTION(S):

Peter Hain