Tony Blair will tomorrow become Labour's longest continuously serving prime minister.

However, Labour has ordered ministers and staff to play down the event.

A party official said yesterday that a short statement would be issued acknowledging tomorrow's landmark.

"At the end of the day it is just a date," he said.

"In fact it says more about previous Labour governments than this one. This may be the longest-serving Labour government after six years, but that is less time than John Major was prime minister."

Meanwhile, the FT reports that fears that Labour is returning to a policy of tax and spend "are uppermost in Britain's captains of industry".