The Archbishop of York was today accused of being "naive" when he warned that negative campaigning was damaging society.

Dr David Hope joined the Archbishop of Canterbury to voice concern about electioneering style.

In an open letter, the leading church figures said: "We all sense how tempting it can be, especially in an election season, for the short-term, the negative and the self-serving to dominate the political stage; for the political spotlight to focus less on what is in the long term interests of us all, than on what can inflict the maximum short term damage on political opponents.

"Not only is that wrong from a Christian perspective, it does not serve the best interests of the society which we all share."

The comments followed a Labour Party broadcast on Wednesday featuring William Hague and Michael Portillo as zombies in a mock-horror film The Return Of The Repossessed.

The Tories retaliated last night with a broadcast showing children buying drugs, dancing around burning cars and vandalising property, with the question: "What are your children learning under Labour?"

Michael McIntyre, the Conservative candidate for York, said today: "Modern political campaigning by necessity uses negative campaigning because it is the only way to get the message across. The constraints of the media mean we have to catch both its attention and the public's. There has always been negative campaigning and I think the Archbishop is being very naive."

Updated: 10:50 Friday, May 25, 2001