British prime minister Gordon Brown has today called a general election for May 6th after visiting Buckingham Palace to ask Queen Elizabeth’s permission to dissolve parliament on April 12th.
"The new parliament will be summoned to meet on Tuesday, May 18th, when the first business will be the election of the Speaker and the swearing in of members," a government statement said. The formal state opening of parliament will take place the following week.
Standing outside his Downing Street residence, with his cabinet arrayed behind him, the prime minister began the month-long campaign for what is expected to be one of the most unpredictable elections in Britain for almost two decades.
"It will come as no surprise to all of you and it's probably the least kept secret of recent years that the queen has kindly agreed to the dissolution of parliament and a general election will take place on May 6th," Mr Brown said.
Conservative leader David Cameron, addressing party workers on the banks of the River Thames opposite parliament, called it the most important election for a generation. "You don't have to put up with another five years of Gordon Brown," he said.
The prime minister earlier hosted a meeting of his cabinet before setting off for Buckingham Palace in his official car this morning.
Mr Brown is expected to square off against Mr Cameron at prime minister’s question time tomorrow, after which several days of negotiation on unfinished legislation will take place between the parties.
The state of the economy will dominate the coming weeks. Mr Brown insisted yesterday it was still too early to make serious cuts in public spending for fear it would tip the UK back into recession.
In a No 10 podcast, Mr Brown was forced once again to defend Labour’s decision to increase national insurance rates for employers and workers in April 2011 in the face of opposition from trade unions and employer bodies.
The party sought to deflect attention from the subject by accusing the Conservatives of being ready to increase value added tax rates within weeks of the election, should they get into power.
Using England and Manchester United footballer Wayne Rooney as an analogy, Mr Brown said “after an injury, you need support to recover . . . If you withdraw support too early, you risk doing more damage.”
While a string of recent polls show the Tories’ lead now growing, there are still some suggesting a narrow margin that could result in a hung parliament.
One Labour source said last night the party saw itself as “the underdogs” but that there was a “resilience and determination within the campaign team to win”.
An ICM survey for the Guardian suggests that the Tories have yet to establish a firm lead and that Labour could even emerge from the general election with the most MPs.
Whichever party came first, the findings indicate either of them would be forced to rely on Liberal Democrat support. The poll puts Labour up four on 33 per cent since last week, and the Tories down one on 37 per cent. The Lib Dems are down two on 21 per cent.
In an indication of the dividing line Mr Brown intends to draw with the Tories over the next month, he said last night: “The people of this country have fought too hard to get Britain on the road to recovery to allow anybody to take us back on the road to recession.”
Labour’s focus as it seeks an historic fourth successive term of office will be on securing the economic recovery, protecting frontline services while halving the deficit and renewing the country’s politics.
But Mr Brown’s principal message will be that he is committed to improving voters’ living standards.
Conservatives were happy to keep the focus on national insurance rates as they unveiled an election poster yesterday showing a single green shoot in danger of being stamped upon by a boot, with the caption “Jobs Tax”.
National insurance has been Labour’s favourite “stealth tax” over 13 years in power, said Conservative shadow chancellor George Osborne.
“The choice in this election is very, very clear. You have either got Labour stamping out the recovery, stamping on the green shoots, or the Conservatives avoiding the jobs tax,” Mr Osborne said.
But his party’s efforts to project a modern image have been damaged by Chris Grayling, the man tipped to be home secretary if the Tories win the election. Mr Grayling, secretly recorded at a right-wing think tank, said BB owners should have the right to deny gay couples permission to stay. Labour business secretary Peter Mandelson, calling for Mr Grayling to be fired, said it proved that the Conservatives say “one thing in public and another in private”.
Questioned about Mr Grayling's comment, Mr Cameron, who himself landed in some difficulties last month in an interview with the Gay Times, said his colleague would keep his job because he had voted in favour of anti-discrimination laws.
Foreign secretary David Miliband said Labour must show that the Conservatives’ declaration that they have changed to mirror a modern Britain is “a sham claim”.
Additional reporting Reuters