LIBERAL DEMOCRAT leader Nick Clegg, who is generally credited with having won Thursday night’s TV election leaders’ debate, is expected to come under ferocious attack in the coming days from senior Conservative and Labour Party figures. However, party leaders David Cameron and Gordon Brown will not want to be seen launching personal attacks upon him.
A series of opinion polls gave victory to Mr Clegg, but more detailed polls in the Sunday papers will provide the first real insight into whether his performance has done enough to encourage voters to back his party. According to pre-debate polls the Liberals would return to the House of Commons with significantly fewer than the 63 seats they had.
Conservative MP Michael Gove, who is certain of an appointment to cabinet if Mr Cameron wins, said of the Liberal leader: “With novelty comes interest, but with interest comes scrutiny,” while leading Labour strategist Douglas Alexander said Mr Clegg was “always bound to gain from equal billing” with the prime minister and Mr Cameron.
“But his policies have yet to come under real scrutiny. That scrutiny, too, is likely to intensify now. People will be in for some surprises about the content of Liberal Democrat policies,” he warned.
However, the Conservatives, in particular, are concerned that the greater media attention on Mr Clegg – particularly on regional radio and TV stations – could give him further impetus.
Both Mr Brown and Mr Cameron yesterday all but conceded that their Liberal opponent had outscored them during Thursday’s Manchester debate, which was watched by approximately nine million people.
Recent polls have reported that the Liberal Democrats could get between 17 per cent and 22 per cent of the vote on May 6th. In 2005, they got 22 per cent, but this was on the back of their opposition to the Iraq War and the introduction of college tuition fees.
This election, the party does not have clear voter-friendly policies, bar no tax on the first £10,000 of income, as it tries to withstand Tory attack in the south and south-west of England.
Mr Clegg, seeking to manage expectations yesterday, said some people were getting carried away and that he intended to keep his feet firmly on the ground.
Meanwhile, Mr Cameron landed in some difficulty with the Metropolitan police following his claim during the debate that the London police force had “400 uniformed officers in their human resources department when our police officers should be crime-fighters, not form-fillers”.
An irritated Met issued a full breakdown of the officers’ duties: more than 200 train new police recruits, 26 train voluntary police officers, and more than 60 are in the driving training school.
Police in Hull were also unhappy at the Tory leader’s implication that they had wasted money by buying an expensive car, following his claim that the Humberside force had “spent £73,000 on a new Lexus”.
The force, it said, had shown Mr Cameron the vehicles it uses for its specialist armed response and high-speed units during his recent visit to Hull. “The Lexus was purchased one year ago and the cost paid was far less than list price,” it said.
It has emerged that most local authorities will begin counting votes after polls close on May 6th, even though many of them had wanted to delay it until the following morning to cuts costs.
The delay was opposed and now only 5 per cent of counts will be held on the following day.