Despite uncertainty over the timing of the election, party leaders have begun the pre-election slanging match with William Hague launching the first salvo on Thursday.

In an interview with the "Spectator", Hague has accused the Tony Blair of being a "fraud".

"He is a man who doesn't tell the truth,'' the opposition leader said. "Blair is an able man. But he is a fraud as well. He says the first thing that comes into his head. He says things that are not true and he knows they are not true."

Hague argues that Blair's claim that it was the House of Lords who killed off the bill to ban fox-hunting when the bill never even made it to the Lords is an example of his duplicity.

In the interview the Conservative leader denied that he had any personal axe to grind with Blair, claiming he did not get "personal" about politics.

The Labour MP Denis MacShane dismissed William Hague's attack.

"Mr Hague hasn't a serious policy to offer the country so he descends into personal abuse. The Tories will only be taken seriously when they address political issues in mature and serious way. Saloon bar style personal insults which Mr Hague has indulged express his lack of judgment and deeply shallow quality," he said.

Hague also said that he had made an error of judgement in allowing disgraced peer Jeffrey Archer to run as the Tories' nomination for London mayor.