Blair’s intervention

Tony Blair is about to take the podium in Couty Durham today, alongside his wife Cherie.

It is a significant moment: Labour are bringing in the big guns to attack on the Conservatives weakest spot with business – the prospect of an EU referendum.

Mr Blair, the architect of Labour attempt to woo the City in the 1990s, dubbed the “prawn cocktail offensive will say that Ed Miliband has shown “real leadership on the EU”.

He will say he admires the way Mr Miliband has shown: “he is his own man with his own convictions and determined to follow them, even when they go against the tide”.

However Theresa May has been on BBC News to downplay Mr Blair’s intervention. She says that it is “weakness” on the part of the Labour leader to “bring him into the fray at this point”.

She said: “Tony Blair not that many weeks ago was complaining about where Ed Miliband was taking the Labour Party and now he has come in in this sense.”

She added: “We are very clear that a Conservative government would give that possibility of an in/out referendum to people. A Labour government wouldn’t.”

George Osborne, the Chancellor, meanwhile believes that Mr Blair will do “the minimum required” to help out the current Labour leader.