LIBERAL DEMOCRAT leader Nick Clegg has moved to assure international financial markets worried at the prospect of a hung parliament after the British general election that his party will be “a voice for sanity”.
Mr Clegg, speaking in Birmingham yesterday at the party’s spring conference, said he would not be “the kingmaker” after the election, and that the party with the biggest mandate should have first chance to form a government.
His wording deliberately does not make clear whether he is referring to a party’s share of House of Commons seats, or to its share of the vote – not the same under the UK’s first-past-the-post system.
“People often ask me what the Liberal Democrats will do after the general election. I’m flattered that people think I can predict the future. Some days I read we’re planning a deal with Labour, some days that we’re planning a deal with the Conservatives, other days that we’ll refuse to talk to anyone at all. Yet, when all the speculation is said and done, I keep coming back to some simple truths: I am not the kingmaker.”
The Liberal Democrats have to heed the sentiments of international financial markets, since voters could be tempted to limit their choice to either Labour or the Conservatives if the markets become unstable before the vote.
Spending cuts would not happen immediately under a government involving the Liberal Democrats, but a £15 billion plan will be clearly detailed before polling day, both Mr Clegg and the party’s finance spokesman, Vince Cable, said.
Mr Clegg said his party would be the “guarantor of good sense” between the two main parties, who are now just between four and seven points apart, if the polls are to be believed. “We are the guarantor – whatever the outcome of the election – that no risks will be taken with Britain’s financial position.”
The Conservatives, despite some wobbles in January and February, want to start cutting public expenditure quickly – though this creates the risk of a double-dip recession, while Labour says cutbacks must be postponed until 2011. Worried by voter reaction, neither party has yet offered details of the cuts.
An ICM/ Sunday Telegraphpoll put the Conservatives on 38 per cent compared to 31 per cent for Labour and 21 per cent for the Liberal Democrats. This would leave David Cameron 31 seats shy of an overall majority.
A separate YouGov poll for the Sunday Timesplaced the Tories on 37 per cent, Labour 33 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 17 per cent – a result that would leave Gordon Brown in Downing Street but 24 seats short of a majority.
Mr Clegg has to battle against voter perception that a Liberal Democrat vote is a wasted one.
“You worry that your choice won’t make enough of a difference. So you are thinking of giving your vote to someone else. Some people are thinking of holding their noses and voting for Brown just to keep out the Conservatives. I say to you: don’t do it. Some people are thinking of holding their noses and voting for Cameron just to get rid of Labour. Don’t do it.
“How do you want to feel when you wake up on May 7th and hear the news? Would you smile at the prospect of five more years of Gordon Brown? Would you be thrilled if a Conservative government was now in charge? If the answer is No, then don’t give them your vote,” he said.
The Lib Dems hold just one in 10 House of Commons seats, despite winning about one-quarter of the vote. “If one in three voted Liberal Democrats, we would be the largest party,” he said.