Tory party leader Iain Duncan Smith flew into Bradford today and said he wanted to make the city all blue at next month's local elections.

Mr Duncan Smith, in Bradford to launch the Conservative Party's local election campaign, said he expected his party to win outright control of the district council.

And he said Bradford, and other cities suffering gun crime and increasing violence, could learn a lesson from Rudolph Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York.

Mr Duncan Smith said crime levels in New York had dropped with high profile policing and claimed Britain should do the same - with officers visible on every street corner and close at hand when people needed help.

When asked about the Government's decision to call in the Odsal Stadium planning application for a public inquiry, the Tory leader said: "What can you expect from the people responsible for the Millennium dome?"

There are plans for a £60 million major redevelopment of the stadium to make it a 26,000-seater with other leisure schemes.

But the redevelopment has been hit by the announcement to call in the plans for an inquiry.

He said he saw Bradford as a model Council for the rest of Britain with a lower than average Council tax increase and "excellent" services.

Mr Duncan Smith praised Tory leader, Councillor Margaret Eaton's leadership in the hung Council but said he expected overall control after May.

The Tory manifesto, Making Life Better, concentrates on keeping control in local hands, better services for less, better health services and better policing.

Mr Duncan Smith accused Labour of "taxation by stealth" and said he wanted people power and not centralisation.

The district's Tory and Labour groups have already hit the campaign trail, each with the aim of getting a majority on the hung Council on May 2.

Labour needs to gain five seats and the Tories ten.

The Liberal Democrat group is contesting all 30 seats and the Green Party, with one councillor, is contesting 13.