Brown and Darling star as 'Deadwood' in Tory poster campaign » Central Government » 24dash.com

The Tories today jumped on the Jedward bandwagon, branding Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling "Deadwood".

A poster campaign features the faces of the Prime Minister and Chancellor imposed on a photograph of the X-Factor's Irish twins John and Edward Grimes.

The text of the advert, appearing on billboards across London, refers to the result of last night's show, stating: "Jedward are gone, but we're still left with... Deadwood."

Labour has already tried to capitalise on the twins' notoriety, producing a similar image earlier this month featuring David Cameron and shadow chancellor George Osborne.

It warned: "You won't be laughing if they win."

Jedward's performances split political as well as public opinion, with Mr Brown describing them as "not very good" but Mr Cameron admitting he found them addictive.

A Labour Party spokesman said of the Tory poster: "We did this two weeks ago and this shows once again how Labour is leading the way in digital campaigning and the Tories are left scrabbling around playing catch up.

"As with so many things the only original idea Cameron and Osborne have come up with was to leave bank savers to lose their deposits, to let the recession take its course and to leave the British people alone to suffer the consequences.

"Luckily the Labour government thought different as did the rest of the world."