After the election the two main parties could both fragment as their internal divisions come to the fore, the Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, said yesterday.
"It seems to me increasingly difficult for the pro-European, One Nation Conservatives to harbour under the same circus tent as what is increasingly a shrill, right-wing, Little England, barricade mentality Conservatism. They might go their own way," he said.
"The Tony Benn critique within the Labour Party as opposed to the Blairite take on life - they don't exist very easily alongside each other. They may go their own ways."