Lib Dems dismissed by Tories, courted by Labour after latest poll
Nick Clegg and his wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez
Saturday, 17, Apr 2010 07:50
By Matthew Champion
Labour and the Conservative general election strategies have been thrown into disarray by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's strong performance in last week's televised debate.
Labour election coordinator Douglas Alexander said that, after almost ten million viewers watched Mr Clegg outperform Gordon Brown and David Cameron on ITV1 last Thursday, it was "now impossible to predict the course of the next three weeks".
Opinion polls issued during and in the aftermath of the first-ever live televised debate between the three main party leaders overwhelmingly declared Mr Clegg the winner, with both Labour and the Tories arguing they had finished second.
Separate polls have since given the Lib Dems a massive boost in support, agitating the two main parties and seeing the odds on a Liberal government falling to their lowest for almost a century.
A Sun/YouGov poll issued on Saturday put the Tories on 33 per cent, the Lib Dems on 30 per cent and Labour on 28 per cent. If replicated at the general election on May 6th there would be a hung parliament with no overall winner.
The Lib Dems gains have prompted conflicting responses in the two main parties, with the Tories hoping Mr Clegg's party would now be subject to "a lot of scrutiny" and Labour making more attempts to woo their voters over the possibility of a Lib-Lab pact and a coalition government.
"I'd love to cut taxes like Nick Clegg is talking about but that's irresponsible and our credibility would be in shreds," Mr Cameron told the Daily Telegraph.
"I'll leave Nick Clegg to explain his policies. But there will be more scrutiny and that's sensible."
Mr Cameron added that he regarded Mr Brown as his main challenger still, saying: "This is the big part of the debate for me - this man is the prime minister. I think I would make a better prime minister.
"In the end the choice will still come down to 'do you want five more years with Gordon Brown or change with the Conservatives?' And I think this is the argument that people will carry with them to the ballot box."
Home secretary Alan Johnson meanwhile told the Times that Labour and the Lib Dems were key allies on several issues, although he criticised their record on asylum, crime and national security.