Conservative Party leader David Cameron today started a drive to dislodge Labour from a number of seats in some of its traditional electoral strongholds.
Mr Cameron said his party had added 20 new names to the list of target seats it is campaigning to remove from Labour's grip, suggesting that this could tip the balance and deliver a Conservative majority.
"We are aiming for a majority government. We believe that is doable, that is deliverable. That is why we've extended our battleground," he told a news conference.
Mr Cameron denied suggestions that this meant that the Conservatives were now pessimistic about winning target seats held by the Liberal Democrats.
"We are working very, very hard to win seats off the Liberal Democrats in many parts of the country," he said.
Mr Cameron went on to attack the Liberal Democrats, describing the party as "misguided", "confused" and "out with the fairies".
The Conservatives are ahead in the polls, but the Liberal Democrats surge to second place in opinion pools could deprive them of the overall majority of parliamentary seats that they need to govern alone.
"What we've seen because of the meltdown in the Labour campaign is an opportunity to work even harder in certain seats which were ... quite safe Labour seats but they're not any more. They're up for grabs," Mr Cameron said.
Mr Cameron says a hung parliament would usher in a period of instability, with parties wrangling over political posts and pet policies rather than getting on with the crucial task of tackling Britain's worrisome budget deficit.
For the Liberal Democrats, who say the voting system is biased against them and favours the two bigger parties, a hung parliament could offer a once-in-a-lifetime chance to obtain electoral reform in return for their support in parliament.
Prime minister Gordon Brown has proposed a referendum on changing the voting system, signalling that he would be open to negotiations with LibDems leader Nick Clegg on the subject.
Mr Clegg said it would be "preposterous" for Mr Brown to stay as prime minister if the Labour Party comes finishes third in next month's election, highlighting the obstacles to Mr Brown remaining in power.
"There are now indications Labour might come third in terms of people voting for the different parties," Mr Clegg told BBC TV's Andrew Marr programme yesterday.
"It is just preposterous, the idea that if a party comes third in terms of the number of votes it still somehow has the right to carry on squatting in No 10 and continue to lay claim to having the prime minister."
Out of 27 polls completed since Mr Clegg's breakthrough performance in the first televised leaders' debate on April 15th, 21 have put Labour in third place in popular support, according to the UK Polling Report website.
A survey of 300 businesses by the British Chambers of Commerce published today found 65 per cent "concerned" or "very concerned" at the prospect of a hung parliament.
Agencies