IT remains to be seen whether Labour's greatest single asset, Tony Blair - he of the extended honeymoon with the electorate and the stratospheric personal popularity ratings - has kept the trust intact.

But, rather than the detail of the cash-for-favours allusions that go with Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone's now-returned £1 million gift to Labour and the subsequent exemption of the sport from the planned ban on tobacco advertising, voters may have taken more regard of something else.

It was the spectacle of the Prime Minister apologising - though not admitting any political crime - for what had gone on that will perhaps have sunk in and altered the country's perception of New Labour.

Until now, Tony Blair had all the credibility a Prime Minister could wish for. But though he may yet have the nation's belief that, under him, the Government would never change a policy to benefit a donor to his party - a prospect reinforced by his promise of a swift shake-up of the political funding system - in this effort to take the bull by the horns, he may have put a highly-public end to the sure-footed image he has basked in for so long.

For it is not as if the Government has been perfect since it came to power, but, largely because of Mr Blair's own style and manner - assisted by the Opposition's tendency to live up to its impotence - it has come through quite unscathed.

The opinion poll ratings have stayed up and the honeymoon has gone on - thus far.

Yet what the Formula 1 row and the taint of sleaze that has come with it have conveyed is that the Government, if not suffering from the sort of collapse of its moral authority as the sleaze-dogged Major administration, is not as capable or smart as it seemed - certainly, not when the very focus of that image, Mr Blair, himself has to go before the country and admit it. If nothing else, it points to the departure when Labour's ability in Government is put seriously in doubt for the first time since the election and when, as a result, its ability to gloss over its faults has been lost.

In short, the honeymoon is over.

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