THE LIBERAL Democrats’ economic policies, including measures that would cut fuel subsidies for some elderly, have been sharply criticised by the Labour Party – though it mixed its criticisms with calls on the third-largest party in Britain to join “a progressive consensus”.
Enjoying a surge following last week’s television debate, with one poll putting him as the most popular British political leader since Winston Churchill, Liberal leader Nick Clegg urged supporters to calm down.
Saying his political vision differed from that of the Liberals, prime minister Gordon Brown criticised their policies on tax credits, winter fuel allowances and the child trust fund, but he avoided assailing Mr Clegg.
“Why are they doing all these things? I think they’ve made a mistake on their economic policy and I think during the next two weeks we’ll be able to expose that we have got the best economic policy for the country,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
On Saturday, however, home secretary Alan Johnson said the UK had to end its long-standing fear of coalition governments.
“I believe we have to kill this argument that coalition government is dangerous. Leaving this election aside, I don’t have a horror of coalitions. You see what happens in many other progressive countries,” said Mr Johnson. His remarks, despite his insistence that he was not talking about this election. are interpreted as a signal to the Liberals.
Meanwhile, secretary of state for Wales Peter Hain said Mr Clegg, who is known to deeply dislike Mr Brown, should ensure “personal chemistry should not get in the way of the national interest”.
The Liberal opinion poll ratings, if they last and are replicated in May 6th polling, would leave Labour as the largest party in a hung House of Commons, creating the possibility that Mr Brown could stay on as prime minister.
The former press chief for Tony Blair, Alistair Campbell, said the Liberal rise was the “best thing that can happen to this election. Oh okay, a sudden 10 point rise for Labour matched by a Tory slide, would have been better, but it was never likely, so this is a good second best.”
Mr Campbell, who is advising Mr Brown in the campaign, said the development would mean that party manifestos and their implications for voters will be examined as never before.
The Conservatives, who have the most to lose from a Liberal Democrat boost, have already started to criticise Mr Clegg, with shadow foreign secretary William Hague describing him as a former EU official and MEP who is ready to “sign up for anything that has ever been on offer” by the EU.
“It is their policy to join the euro. That is completely out of step with the majority of people in the country,” said Mr Hague, who has, like other Tories, highlighted the Liberals’ favouring of an amnesty for long-term illegal immigrants.
Conservative leader David Cameron, speaking in Swindon yesterday, urged voters to back his party, warning that anything else will just ensure “another five years of Gordon Brown in Downing Street”.
Interestingly, Mr Cameron made a strong plea for elderly voters to support the Conservatives. In 2005 some 75 per cent of over-65s voted, but only 37 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 did so.
