CONSERVATIVE LEADER David Cameron has insisted he will run a “good and strong government” if he leads a minority government after this week’s election.
Mr Cameron, whose campaign was boosted by weekend polls indicating increasing support for his party, declared he was still fighting for an outright victory in Thursday’s election.
“I’m fighting with everything I’ve got in the next four days to try and win what I think will be good for Britain, which is a decisive majority government that can take the whole country with it, but get things done starting on Friday.
“If there’s a hung parliament, of which I think there are many disadvantages and I’ve set those out, we would behave responsibly, we would do everything we can to have a good and strong government in the national interest,” he said.
A poll in yesterday's Sunday Telegraphputs the Conservatives up three points on 36 per cent, Labour up one point to 29 per cent, and the Liberal Democrats down three at 27 per cent – the same level the party achieved after the first televised leader's debate three weeks ago, which its leader Nick Clegg dominated.
Refusing to declare whether he prefers a coalition with Labour or the Conservatives, Mr Clegg was confronted by a member of the public at a meeting in Redcar last evening, who complained that he would “not tell people...when we need to know”.
Mr Clegg replied: “What you can’t reasonably expect me to do is predict what you will do with your votes.
“Everywhere I go I hear from people who have voted Labour all their lives, whose parents and grandparents have voted Labour. I understand it, that people see Labour as part of their identity,” he told the meeting.
“But you have not betrayed Labour. Labour has betrayed you. Take a chance to make it right. It is our last chance to get it right,” said the Liberal Democrat leader, who needs support from voters who traditionally choose Labour and the Conservatives.
The problems affecting Labour’s campaign, which has been marked by declining confidence and a series of blunders, was highlighted by prime minister Gordon Brown’s decision to spend part of Saturday in a constituency where Labour enjoys a 15,000-strong majority – the type of constituency that would never usually see a visit from a Labour leader so late in the campaign.
Meanwhile, Mr Cameron acknowledged that extra spending cuts – on top of what has been promised already in the party’s manifesto – will have to be made if he wins.
However, he insisted that Tory ministers would be told to “go away and think again” if they were to bring him, as prime minister, plans to cut frontline services.