Conservative leader Michael Howard has placed a full-page advertisement in the Society section of today's Guardian newspaper, calling on public sector workers to send him evidence of waste and bureaucracy.

"We are placing this ad in the Guardian and no other papers," said his spokesman. "We are keen to get away from the idea of a Guardian-reading liberal elite. That is certainly not the way we see it here.

"The fact that you do have a high readership in the public sector means the Guardian is the natural place to advertise. We value public sector workers and we want their views. We don't want this to be seen as an attack on them. We want to work with them to make things better."