LEADERS' DILEMMA:GORDON BROWN stood outside 10 Downing Street yesterday afternoon and looked prime ministerial.
The Labour leader opted to play a waiting game in the hope that Conservative party leader David Cameron’s bid for power runs out of steam. Mr Brown had little choice after Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg made clear he believed the Conservatives, with the largest number of votes and the largest number of seats, should have the first chance of forming a government.
The Labour leader needs time, but he cannot appear to be “squatting” in Downing Street – the uncomfortably apt phrase used by Mr Clegg during one campaign interview – lest he provoke public fury.
Speaking outside Number 10, Mr Brown’s message was clear: the government is getting on with business – the euro crisis, sharp falls in the stock exchange, and so on. The business of setting up a government is not interfering with the business of government.
So far the prime minister’s troops have remained quite loyal by Labour’s standards, while they wait to see the outcome of the next few days. The prime minister and Britain’s top civil servants had already prepared for a hung parliament.
Under the constitutional convention developed through precedent, a prime minister resigns once he no longer has a parliamentary majority but a sitting prime minister can stay in office and try to form an administration if no other party is able to do so.
Standing in a melee outside the Liberal Democrats’ Cowley Street headquarters in Westminster, Mr Clegg sought to put it up to Mr Cameron to show that he can act in the national interest. The Liberal Democrat leader avoided saying exactly how much support he would offer and at what price.
A few hours later the Conservative leader batted the ball back into Mr Clegg’s court, offering to accept Liberal support for a minority Conservative government on the issues on which they can agree; or, perhaps, something more formal.
In reality, much of the Conservative party leader’s offer was well-prepared fluff: policies to create a low-carbon society, a pledge to strengthen his determination to cut taxes for the low-paid – though not saying when or by how much.
On electoral reform, there was nothing more than an offer to set up a parliamentary committee. Mr Cameron’s ability to deliver even the alternative vote, let alone the more proportional system that Clegg favours, is limited since it is doubtful he could whip his new MPs into voting for the legislation needed to steer it through parliament.
The Conservative leader now wants to push on. Civil servants will be detailed to all three parties to help them through the intricacies of negotiating a coalition deal, if that is what they actually want to do. But it is not clear that they do.
Mr Clegg’s grassroots are angry with him for giving the Conservatives first advantage, while the Tories are livid at the idea that they might be asked to concede on electoral reform (even if, in reality, Cameron is doing no such thing).
Electoral reform aside, the Conservatives disagree with the Liberal Democrats on immigration, defence, income tax for the low paid and inheritance taxes for the better-off. Moreover, while they do not disagree about the scale of the cuts to come, they do disagree when they should start.
The three party leaders could get mauled, regardless of what they do next. Mr Brown must stay in power to survive, while Mr Cameron must do something to fend off bubbling criticism in the ranks and Mr Clegg must not allow himself to be portrayed as the man who set his price too high.
