TORY election chief Eric Pickles last night launched a withering attack on Liberal Democrat grandee Paddy Ashdown as the battle over political supremacy in the Westcountry stepped up a gear.

The Conservative chairman hit back at claims last week by the ex-Yeovil MP that the region had been "trampled on" by previous Tory administrations.

Mr Pickles said Lord Ashdown had been left "frail and confused" after being taken "out of mothballs" to save his party from wipe-out in the region.

Underlining the importance to both parties of electoral success in the Westcountry, the Tory election supremo told the Western Morning News: "You would have thought if they'd brought Paddy back, took him out of mothballs to do this, they would have given him an up-to-date briefing.

"He's clearly taken his last briefing from when he was involved in conventional politics and just repeated the same old stuff. You can't really get away with talking about what happened in the 1980s."

In an interview with the WMN last week, Lord Ashdown, 68, who was last year asked by leader Nick Clegg to head the party's regional campaign after stepping down as an MP in 2001, pointed to the Westcountry's huge water bills as evidence of how the then Conservative Government "trampled all over the South West" in the 1980s and early-1990s.

He also indicated the region continued to be short-changed by Conservative health funding formulas and that if the Tories were to secure a mandate to govern in May, when an election was likely, the region would be saddled with a "Home Counties Government".

The Westcountry is crucial to Tory hopes of winning the election. On a uniform national swing, the Conservatives need to seize nine Westcountry seats currently under Lib-Dem control in order to achieve a Commons majority of just one.

Mr Pickles, who emphasised the former Lib-Dem leader was a "great guy" and an "immensely important statesman", said: "I think his memory's a little frail and I think it's an indication of when things are going a little wrong for you, you have to resort to some kind of Labour-lite rhetoric.

"It's the kind of thing you expect the Prime Minister to say. I expect higher standards from Lord Ashdown."

This week, Mr Clegg blamed the economic downturn after ditching key policy pledges, including free universal childcare.

Mr Pickles said: "In fairness to Lord Ashdown, when he said all those things about knowing where Nick Clegg stood, that was before Nick Clegg abandoned a lot of the things that Paddy knew he was standing for. Maybe he might be a little bit more confused."

This week, the WMN revealed Tory leader David Cameron had written to thousands of homes across the region warning that a vote for the Lib-Dems would hand Labour an historic fourth term in power.

Mr Pickles repeated how victory in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset was "massively important" to securing a parliamentary majority. "The truth is this – the Westcountry delivers the election for David Cameron.

"There can't be a David Cameron government without the seats that are currently occupied by the Liberal Democrats... a significant number of them change to Conservative."

In an attempt to woo Lib-Dem voters into "lending" the Conservatives their vote, Mr Pickles once again highlighted how issues more commonly associated with the Lib-Dems – such as ID cards, the environment and sustainability – could be progressed through a Conservative government, a technique analysts describe as "lovebombing".

Lord Ashdown had said the message was so old that "Mr Pickles must have been to the pawnbrokers".

But Mr Pickles responded: "You can't paint David Cameron as anything other than a very moderate man.

"What we're really saying is at the very heart of the next Conservative government will be the principles of liberal democracy.

"And in particular about a green and sustainable recovery, personal liberty, protection of citizens rights – all the very things that Liberal Democrats have talked about for decades and never been able to achieve because they've never had the opportunity of government."