Phoney war over as Brown confirms May 6th general election date
Tuesday, 06, Apr 2010 05:53
By Matthew Champion.
Gordon Brown has confirmed the worst kept secret in Westminster by announcing the general election will take place on May 6th.
Earlier the prime minister visited the Queen at Buckingham Palace to ask her to dissolve parliament so the election can take place.
The May 6th date has been an open secret in Westminster for many months and his announcement on Tuesday will see campaigning for the first general election in five years officially begin.
Key dates:
April 8th: Parliament adjourned
April 12th: Parliament dissolved
April 15th, April 22nd and April 29th: Televised prime ministerial debates
May 6th: General election
May 18th: Parliament recalled
The prime minister is bidding to guide Labour to an unprecedented fourth victory at the national polls, but recent opinion polls have put David Cameron's Conservatives roughly ten points ahead.
The Tories welcomed the official announcement of the general election date, with Mr Cameron to say later today that his party would campaign for the "great ignored".
"Young, old, rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight. They start our businesses, operate our factories, teach our children, clean our streets, grow our food, keep us safe. They work hard, pay their taxes, obey the law", he is expected to tell supporters.
"They're good, decent people - they're the people of Britain and they just want a reason to believe that anything is still possible in Britain.
"This election is about giving them that reason, giving them that hope."
Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, denied being the third runner in a "two horse race", saying "all bets are off".
"I'm really looking forward to being able to put the case for real change, real fairness, to people," he said.
The Tories established another dividing line with the government recently by pledging to cancel the proposed national insurance increase, while persisting with spending cuts later this year.
Labour prefers to defer the cuts, which all the parties agree on as necessary in the current economic climate, until the following fiscal year, with Mr Brown yesterday comparing the state of the UK economy to injured England striker Wayne Rooney.
"After an injury you need support to recover, you need support to get back to match fitness, you need support to get back your full strength and then go on to lift the World Cup," the prime minister said in a fireside chat-style podcast published on the Downing St website.
"So with the economy - we're not back to full fitness, we need to maintain support.
"If we try and jump off the treatment table as if nothing had happened we'll do more damage to the economy - and frankly that means we risk a double-dip recession. I think that's a risk we can't afford to take."
Despite the Tories riding high in the polls consistently since the autumn of 2007 a bungled start to the unofficial campaigning that began in the new year has seen doubts emerge over their election credentials.
The latest came this weekend when shadow home secretary Chris Grayling hammered another nail into his frontbench coffin when he was recorded as saying bed-and-breakfast owners should be able to turn away gay couples.
Voter apathy and anger towards the main parties could also play into the hands of the Liberal Democrats, despite Nick Clegg having no comparable campaigning issue of opposition to the Iraq war that then party leader Charles Kennedy used to win a record number of seats in 2005.
The considerable swing needed by the Tories for an overall majority makes the first hung parliament since 1974 a realistic outcome, with the Lib Dems going into an election with the potential status of kingmakers, while his performance on the chancellors' debate on Channel 4 last month has made Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable a viable candidate for chancellor.