Former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major today suggested that Labour leader Tony Blair was more right wing than him.
Sir John told the Leveson Inquiry that he once joked about Mr Blair - who led Labour to victory in 1997 - stealing his clothes.
And he said he was not surprised that The Sun switched its backing from the Conservatives to Labour in the run-up to the 1997 election.
"In many ways he (Mr Blair) was to the right of me," said Mr Major, who was prime minister from 1990 to 1997. "I remember joking once that I had gone swimming in the River Thames and left my clothes on the bank - and when I got back Mr Blair was wearing them."
He told the inquiry: "I don't think it was very surprising that they (The Sun) decided to support Labour."
Sir John said during his premiership The Sun had told readers that the Conservative Government was "useless". But he said the Conservatives had left an "extremely good" economy.
"In 1997 we actually handed over an extremely good economy," he said. "I cannot think that a better economy was handed over."
Sir John said he was always confident that the Conservatives would win in 1992 - although a fourth successive election victory had seemed unlikely.
In the run up to the 1992 election, Sir John held public meetings and addressed crowds from a soap box.
He said signs pointed to a Labour victory but it "didn't feel like that" to him. He said he "simply could not believe" the Conservatives would lose.
"I disliked the sort of politicking that was done from television studios and radio studios and through the columns in the newspapers," he said. "It cut you off. You were cut off from the public at large. It was for that reason I went out and held public meetings again and even a soap box."
He added: "I may have been delusional but I thought all the way through that we were going to win that election."