Video: Paul Jones, Photos: Jonathan Borg

The Maltese Labour Party and the Prime Minister have "taken on" a lot from Britain's 'New Labour' and have understood that to win elections, progressive parties have to bring people who did not vote for them before on their side, according to Alastair Campbell.

Tony Blair's former 'spin-doctor' was speaking to The Malta Independent this evening, before the start of an Ernst and Young event at the Chamber of Commerce. He will tomorrow deliver a keynote speech at the tenth edition of the Ernst and Young Malta attractiveness survey.

"New Labour was a huge success. The British Labour Party, prior to Tony Blair had never won two successive terms and under Tony's leadership we won three. New Labour was a very big part of that. I think the PM and the Labour Party here in Malta have taken on a lot of what we did in terms of understanding that to build the strong society that progressive people want to build we have to develop the economy, to understand that to win power you have to reach out to people that have not voted for you before. We did not get the landslide we did in 1997, and the PL here did not get the landslide it got here last year without having reached to people who did not vote for us before. That is what progressive parties have to do."

Mr Campbell said the next election in Britain is very difficult to call although Labour currently enjoys a lead in the polls. "That does not mean that Labour is necessarily going to win but provided that Labour understands that most people are living their live at the centre of British politics than there is a chance that Labour will win again."

Turning to other matters, the former spokesman for Tony Blair said Malta has a successful story to tell on Foreign Direct Investment. "It goes without saying that it is much harder to communicate a brand if you are a small country. I think that the fundamentals are strong but all that Malta needs to communicate a real powerful message - and I will be speaking about this tomorrow - is the need for that to be done by government and business; understanding what these messages are and I think that this is all there. It is just a question of bringing it all together in a strong coherent way."

When asked if Malta, with its limited resources, should only focus on the EU markets, Mr Campbell said: "I don't think Malta can just stick with the EU and I do not think that is what the government is doing. Because of its geographical location Malta has a real opportunity to become more of a hub. Globalisation has given Malta opportunities which it is taking. And I know there was a passionate debate about whether Malta should be in the EU in the first place, which has since been settled, and there is no doubt that Malta usually gains from that and so does the EU."

Mr Campbell was also asked about the subject of depression and on why he feels the need to talk about it and campaign to raise awareness on the subject. "I do it because I think that mental health is the last great taboo and people just do not open enough about it. I have had problems of mental breakdown and I have continued problems with depression but that does not stop me living a very full, active and involved life. I think that many people who have mental health problems do feel stigmatised and I also think that businesses who rule people out because of a history of mental health are possibly cutting themselves off from some of the brightest minds that they could find. What I am trying to do through a UK campaign I am involved in, 'Time to Change', is to try and get people feel as open on their mental health as on their physical health. I think it is good for the people. I have never regretted being open about the subject. Stigma is just a bad thing. Taboos make people feel they cannot talk about things that are such a big part of their life. It just makes it so wrong."