Underdogs can beat Tory millionaires

Hello. Very busy today and looking forward to my tweet-up in Leeds after giving the closing speech at Yorkshire and Humber Labour conference.

But thought you'd might like to see a peak at what I'm going to see. Here's the press release:

Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott will today fire the starting gun of the general election campaign by telling party activists Labour's team of underdogs can come from behind to clinch an historic fourth term.

He'll also warn David Cameron "the general election is not for sale" and that Labour will "fight them on the Facebook, tackle them on Twitter and destroy them on the doorstep."

Mr Prescott will use yesterday's remarkable 2-1 victory by Hull City over Manchester City, the richest team in the world, as an analogy of Labour's future battle against the Tories.

Mr Prescott, who is back on his Prescott Express battle bus, will tell delegates in the closing speech of the Yorkshire and Humber Labour conference:

"It's good to be an underdog. We saw a team of underdogs led by Brown, attacked by the press, take on a team of millionaires who play in blue. No-one gave the underdogs a chance.

"But they pulled off the upset because they fought with passion, they fought with confidence and more importantly, they fought as a team."

Mr Prescott will also contrast the Conservatives multi-million pound election war chest funded by Tory Deputy Chairman Lord Ashcroft, to campaign in key marginals and the recent Cameron airbrushed-photo posters with Labour's focus on using new media.

He will tell delegates: "The Tories can airbrush their posters but they can't airbrush their policies. The more they reveal the more unpopular they get. Within minutes, Go Fourth put up a reply poster on Twitter saying "Inheritance Tax cuts for the richest 3,000 estates? Because I'm worth it."

"This inspired others to start doing their own rebuttal posters. So the £500,000 poster campaign funded by a non dom Lord was defeated by people power.

"So we may not have their money but we'll show the Tories and Ashcroft that this election is not for sale. We'll fight them on the Facebook, tackle them on Twitter and destroy them on the doorstep."

Mr Prescott will also add that Go Fourth - the Campaign for a Fourth Labour Term founded by Richard Caborn, Glenys Kinnock and Alastair Campbell - is already campaigning.

He will add: "On Saturday I was campaigning on the Prescott Express battle bus in Leeds North West. From now until election day, I'll be crossing the country and visiting the seats I campaigned in back in 1997, showing how they all improved under Labour.

"In 1997 we said ‘Things Can Only Get Better. Now I'm going to go round the country showing how Britain's Got Better."

Mr Prescott, who is also the most followed MP on Twitter with almost 13,500 followers, will then hold a ‘tweet-up' with Facebook friends and Tweeters for a chat about the campaign ahead.