Beleaguered Ministers shocked by grassroots reaction to a possible levy on property .sx Cool views delay plans for new tax .sx By PHIL MURPHY , Political Correspondent .sx THE cool response by Tory activists to the Government's proposed replacement for the poll tax has delayed even the publishing of outline plans , it emerged yesterday .sx Sources close to the review said that Ministers were shocked at the lack of enthusiasm and the occasional outright criticism of their blueprint replacement at the Conservatives' Central Council meeting in Southport last month .sx That meeting , the second largest gathering of Tory activists of the year , heard some Conservatives warn against a property tax and the Environment Secretary , Mr Michael Heseltine , was given a cool reception .sx Ministers realised then that the presentation of the combined property and head tax could be crucial to its success and even its acceptance in the party .sx A decision to take the review steadily and resist strong pressure for an announcement was made shortly after Southport .sx This means that a final decision on the proposed local tax will not come until just before the summer recess , probably in the first half of July .sx With all three main parties launching their local government election campaigns today , this delay will provide ammunition against the Tories for Labour and the Liberal Democrats .sx The prospects of Ministers flagging up one of a package of options as their preferred solution when they publish a consultative document within the next few weeks also appeared to be receding yesterday .sx Although the Tory chairman , Mr Chris Patten , is believed to favour highlighting one option , one source involved in the review said that any indication of a preference by Ministers could ruin the consultation process with party members , local government and voters .sx After the Thatcher Government's misjudgement of the likely response to the poll tax by failing to consult , the Prime Minister and his colleagues are intent on avoiding a similar mistake this time .sx Some say it will be preferable to risk losing some seats in the May 2 round of local government elections and get the package right rather than to allow themselves to be forced into a quick fix and suffer later .sx Government sources were hinting yesterday that the consultative document , containing a series of options , might not be ready even after next week's Cabinet meeting .sx Downing Street is hoping that a meeting of the Cabinet committee considering the replacement tax will take place tomorrow but this is not certain .sx Earlier in the week a series of informal meetings were all that were expected .sx One source said :sx " The earliest we think it ( the consultative document ) will come will be next week or the week after .sx It's got to go to Cabinet .sx It won't be able to go to this week's Cabinet .sx It could even be the week after next .sx " .sx The continuing delays suggest at best an attempt to fine-tune the package but , at worst , disarray over the way forward .sx Labour's local government spokesman , Mr David Blunkett , rounded on the Government last night .sx He said :sx " It is sheer hypocrisy for the Conservatives to delay their detailed alternative proposals to the poll tax and existing local government structure and functions when they themselves chided the Labour Party exactly 12 months ago for 'not having a clear alternative' .sx " It is now time for the Government - with all the resources that they possess through the Civil Service and computer facilities - to spell out for the British electorate just what their policies mean .sx " If they do not , then it is clear that the British electorate will be unable to make a judgment on what exactly the Conservatives have to offer in the local elections .sx " Their candidates across the country will be offering local people nothing .sx Their own supporters will have no clear idea what it is that they are expected to vote on and the conclusion will have to be drawn that the confusion , dithering and incompetence will continue .sx " .sx But there is a boost for the beleaguered Mr Major today :sx 15 Parliamentary hopefuls and councillors backing him are publishing a statement of support .sx Kinnock to woo floating voters in crucial conference speech .sx By PHIL MURPHY , Political Correspondent at the Labour Party conference in Brighton .sx THE Labour leader , Mr Neil Kinnock , will today seek to woo the floating voters with a vision of Labour Britain as a land of opportunity for all .sx In a crucial speech , Mr Kinnock will use his annual keynote address to the party conference to contrast his vision of a Labour government offering opportunity for the many with what he claims is a Tory administration offering opportunity only for the few .sx Mr Kinnock will also seek to bolster confidence in Labour's ability to manage the economy .sx He will claim that a Labour government will be committed to sustained growth , freed from the boom and bust of the Tory years .sx His speech follows the outlining by the Shadow Chancellor , Mr John Smith , and the Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary , Mr Gordon Brown , of party economic policy at the conference yesterday .sx Mr Smith repeated his pledge to increase retirement pensions by pounds5 for a single pensioner and pounds8 for a married couple , and also his promise to increase child benefit to the level it would have been had the Tories not restrained it - pounds9 .sx 55 per week .sx Labour would end what Mr Smith called " The scandal of poverty pay " with a minimum wage set first at pounds3 .sx 40 per hour , and would restore the direct link between pensions and earnings and prices - a link severed by the Tories .sx The Shadow Chancellor also repeated his plan to pay for increased pensions and child benefit through an increase in top-rate income tax from 40p to 50p .sx Mr Smith stressed again a constant theme of conference - Labour's drive to use more of the talents of the British people .sx He said :sx " I want to see a nation energised by the skills of its workforce and the technology of the workplace .sx I want us to build a society where imaginative training programmes and decent child care provision enable women who want to work and make their vital contribution to our economy and to our society .sx " .sx The Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary , Mr Brown , heralded " a new investment decade " under Labour .sx Three new investment initiatives in manufacturing , skills and technology would , he claimed , make Britain the training and technology capital of the world .sx He also announced an emergency jobs and training package , to be implemented in the " first few days " of a Labour government , investing in manufacturing , setting up industrial development agencies in the regions , and a new defence diversification agency .sx But he drew the most fervent applause for his attacks on the Tories .sx Mr Brown accused the Prime Minister of presiding over " one of the worst collapses in manufacturing investment since the 1930s " .sx Referring to secret donations to the Tory Party by a Greek billionaire , he said :sx " Let us recall their theme in 1987 - making Britain great again .sx " And this from a party that now disgracefully depends on American-style election dirty tricks , on dubious Hong Kong donations and , most shamefully of all , on a Greek billionaire moving his money out of colonels and into Majors - an affront to democracy and to Britain .sx " .sx He said the people who had done best under the Tories were the 5,000 millionaires , who had become multi-millionaires .sx " The 5,0000 who have had cumulative tax cuts of pounds5 bn - money which should have gone to child benefit and pensions .sx " .sx It was the " Tory version of the feeding of the 5,000 " , he said .sx Earlier , the Shadow Employment Secretary , Mr Tony Blair , fiercely attacked the Government over the length of Britain's dole queues , saying :sx " A Government that tolerates three million unemployed and more is a Government prepared to shatter the cohesion on which our society depends .sx " .sx He said Labour would legislate to require all employers to make a minimum investment in training , or pay a contribution to a local or national training effort .sx Governor " reported IRA Plot " .sx Brixton row fuels pressure on Baker .sx By PHIL MURPHY , Political Correspondent .sx DEMANDS for the Home Secretary , Mr Kenneth Baker , to resign erupted again last night after the sacked governor of Brixton Prison spoke out over the IRA jail-break affair .sx Mr Reg Withers claimed he had passed on to his superiors reports that two suspected IRA terrorists were planning to break out of Brixton , months before their successful escape in July .sx It emerged yesterday that the IRA tried to force a member of staff at Brixton Prison to smuggle a gun to the two suspects , Nessan Quinlivan and Pearse McAuley .sx The attempt backfired when Mr Withers was told of the plan in February , and alerted the Home Office Prison Department .sx As part of the effort to thwart any breach of security the two IRA suspects were moved from D-wing to A-wing at Brixton .sx But five months later , on July 7 , Quinlivan and McAuley pulled a loaded gun on officers escorting them from the prison chapel and escaped over the prison wall .sx Mr Withers later yesterday retracted suggestions that he had written directly to the Home Office calling for Quinlivan and McAuley to be transferred from Brixton - but the Home Office accepted that the former governor had issued a warning to the Prison Department .sx A Home Office spokeswoman said that the disciplinary inquiry now under way would consider whether anyone should face action as a result of failure to pass that information on to senior Prison Department and Home Office staff and Ministers .sx The same spokeswoman said that the Home Secretary would not be resigning .sx However , serious questions are being asked about the Prison Department's failure to act on the tip-off , which was also backed up by police information .sx The police information , which also warned that the escape attempt would take place after Mass in the prison chapel , was apparently not passed to Mr Withers .sx Mr Withers , 59 , has been told to take leave until his retirement in October , following an inquiry into the incident by the Chief Inspector of Prisons , Judge Stephen Tumim .sx Mr Baker , who is on holiday in France , rejected a call from the Shadow Home Secretary , Mr Roy Hattersley , for a full public inquiry into the circumstances of the Brixton escape .sx The Labour spokesman also called for publication of as much as possible of the Tumim report into the break-out .sx Only sections of the report were released earlier in the week .sx Mr Hattersley warned that , without such a public inquiry , Mr Baker's position might become impossible .sx Earlier this week the Shadow Home Secretary had stopped short of calling for Mr Baker's resignation .sx Now he believes that , without further clarification of what happened , Mr Baker might have to go .sx The Liberal Democrats last night repeated their view that the Home Secretary should quit .sx A spokesman , Mr Mike Carr , said :sx " This whole business is getting murkier and murkier .sx Earlier in the week we called for the Home Secretary's resignation .sx In the light of Mr Withers's comments we are now certain that that was the right thing to do .sx " .sx The controversy stoked up by the decision to force Mr Withers to take early retirement had taken a fresh turn when the former governor broke his silence over the affair .sx In a report in the London Evening Standard , Mr Withers said :sx " I'm being blamed for things which were absolutely outside of my control .sx It is not in my power to move prisoners .sx " I made a report to my superiors indicating that these men should not be in Brixton .sx I am very distressed that all this has been laid at my door .sx " .sx Though he later spelled out in a statement that he was not claiming to have written to the Home Office requesting the transfer , the underlying allegation that he did contact the Prison Department remained intact .sx However Mr Baker's deputy , the Home Office Minister , Mrs Angela Rumbold insisted :sx " The governor had prior warning .sx The Home Secretary and I did not .sx If we had been told we would have done something .sx " .sx Responding to Mr Hattersley's calls for an inquiry and for publication of more of the Tumin report , Mrs Rumbold said in a letter to the Shadow Home Secretary last night :sx