TONY Blair put education back at the top of the election agenda with a powerful speech in the North-East yesterday, marking the real start of the 2005 campaign.

Echoing his famous 1997 pledge, Mr Blair said: ''Education, education, education - now and forever the key to the door of Britain's future success.''

After the funeral of the Pope and the Royal Wedding, yesterday saw all parties swing into top gear, with Conservative leader Michael Howard concentrating on immigration and promising to introduce border control police, and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy pledging to "talk Britain up" in a positive campaign.

At Trimdon Labour Club yesterday afternoon, Mr Blair was unanimously adopted as the candidate to defend his 17,713 majority in Sedgefield.

In an impassioned speech, he said: "To anyone who thinks politics doesn't matter or who says it's all spin and no substance, I say go to the schools with the additional teachers, go to the hospitals with the nurses and doctors, go to the SureStart children's centre at Ferryhill and now others in Chilton and Newton Aycliffe. That is a New Labour Government in action. We can be proud of it."

In an exclusive interview with The Northern Echo, Mr Blair addressed how, after the Iraq war, he could regain the trust of the electorate.

He said: "The best way to think about trust is that people trusted me to end boom and bust and provide a stable economy - we've done it. They trusted me to invest in public services - we're doing it."

But education was his main theme, promising better pay for teachers, 1,000 rebuilt secondary schools, "proper school meals" and "more free nursery education".

He contrasted improvements in schools and colleges at Trimdon Grange, Middleton St George, Sedgefield, Wingate and Ferryhill with the "education crisis" he inherited from "Michael Howard's Tories" in 1997.

In a twist on the Conservative slogan "Are you thinking what we're thinking?", he asked: "Are you remembering what I'm remembering?"

Meanwhile, Mr Howard accused Labour of ''pussyfooting around'' with immigration. He said officials were being forced to turn a blind eye to illegal immigration to meet "meaningless" targets.

"This is ... playing fast and loose with our security," he said. "We face a real terrorist threat in Britain today - a threat to our way of life, to our liberties. Yet we have absolutely no idea who's coming into and leaving our country."

But former Tory MP Charles Wardle - immigration minister when Mr Howard was Home Secretary - turned on his former boss, denouncing the policy as "likely to make immigration and asylum problems worse not better".

Mr Kennedy said a Tory cap on asylum numbers would lead to a "much crueller Britain". He went on to say people felt let down by Labour over tax increases, student top-up fees and the Iraq war.

He promised just one new tax plan - a 50 per cent income tax on people earning more than £100,000 - which would hit one per cent of earners.

He said: "And we should be proud of what that will pay for - an end to tuition fees; providing free personal care for the elderly; and reducing the burden of local taxation.''

Polls yesterday gave Labour between a two and a seven point lead over the Tories.