TONY BLAIR’S spin doctors have a new strategy to attack David Cameron.

Voters decided Labour’s depiction of the Tory leader as a chameleon just made him look sweet. Now the plan is to show Cameron as a much more slippery creature — a floppy-haired estate agent.

Labour hopes the image will strike a chord with “middle England” home-buyers whom they assume detest estate agents. Party strategists see the campaign as part of a counter- attack against what they predict will be an attempt by Cameron’s team to exploit the political lull of high summer to garner favourable headlines.

There is frustration in the ranks at Labour’s failure to claw back Cameron’s opinion poll gains. A senior insider said: “We are annoyed we haven’t managed to nail Cameron. We need to progress from the chameleon image. It was important, but it only went so far.

“Middle England hates estate agents and you can just see Cameron as one. He’s posh, floppy-haired, flash and full of chat. He’s willing to say anything to make the sale, but nowhere to be seen when the roof falls in.”

The dismissal of an entire profession as reptiles may prove unwise. Figures from the Office for National Statistics have shown there are more estate agents than soldiers. Agencies employ 134,000 compared with 100,620 in the army.

Charles Smailes, president of the National Association of Estate Agents, said the planned campaign was “derogatory and derisory”, adding that, if Labour wished to target unpopular jobs it might have gone for car salesmen “or even a minister”, adding: “It lets everybody see the depths they will go to to score a political point.”

He accused Labour of taking revenge for widespread opposition to the government’s new home information packs.

Details of the new campaign are being finalised. It is likely to be launched by Hazel Blears, the Labour chairman, and Jacqui Smith, the chief whip. An advertising agency is expected to be hired to draw up a cartoon image of Cameron brandishing a phoney “for sale” sign.

Plans for the campaign show Labour also toyed with the idea of characterising Cameron as “Swiss Toni,” the smooth- talking car salesman in the BBC television programme The Fast Show; or Arthur Daley, the small-time conman in Minder, the ITV series that ended in 1994.

Party strategists, however, concluded that both characters were “too working class” for a comparison to Cameron, who was educated at Eton.

Labour has also ruled out an overtly hostile campaign against the Tory leader after private polling suggested an initiative similar to Maurice Saatchi’s “demon eyes” poster campaign for the Tories against Blair in 1997, would backfire.

A party insider said: “Our polling suggests anything like the devil eyes campaign would be a serious mistake. Just as people didn’t think Blair was the devil, they do not think Cameron is a baddie. They think he is interesting and fresh.”

Labour’s chameleon advertising campaign has widely been acknowledged as a damp squib. It was unveiled before May’s local election campaign. John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, said it represented Cameron’s willingness to tailor his views to his audience.

Cameron, however, said the television version of the advert had become a favourite of his daughter Nancy, 2, who called it “nice frog on the telly”.

He addressed journalists in the parliamentary lobby a week after the first advert was broadcast as “My fellow reptiles”.

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