Britain's Liberal Democrats turned their fire on the banking industry today, seeking to build on a surge in support that has thrown next month's election wide open.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has been projected from virtual unknown to rising star on the back of a widely praised performance last week in Britain's first televised debate among political leaders.
Polls show the centrist Lib Dems overtaking ruling Labour, in power for 13 years, in terms of popular support and only a few points behind the main opposition Conservatives.
However, the quirks of Britain's first-past-the-post voting system means that could translate into a situation where Labour remains the largest party in the 650-seat parliament but no party wins a majority.
Mr Clegg, a multilingual former European parliamentarian, bracketed his attack on banks, with broader moves to clean up a scandal-hit parliament.
"The only party that now stands up for real change in the old economic and political order in this country are the Liberal Democrats," he told a news conference.
Clegg said that US investment back Goldman Sachs should be shut out of government contracts until a fraud case against the firm was settled.
"We believe that Goldman Sachs should now be suspended in its role as one of the advisers to the government until these allegations are properly looked into." The Lib Dems have called for a 10 percent profit on bank profits and for larger banks to be broken up to prevent a recurrence of the global banking crisis.
Conservative Party leader David Cameron will today issue a tough warning to people who refuse to work as he sets out Tory plans to revolutionise Britain’s welfare system.
Seeking to regain the initiative following the Liberal Democrat poll surge, Mr Cameron will tell benefit claimants: “Fail to take responsibility — and the free ride is over.” He will launch the Conservatives’ “new welfare contract” on the campaign trail in Staffordshire, vowing to cut benefits for people who refuse to work or who defraud the system, and pledging to reassess everyone who currently claims incapacity benefit.
The sanctions will sit alongside a “work programme” which commits to offering “unprecedented support” to people looking for employment, including work clubs, training places and help starting new businesses.
Mr Cameron is expected to say: “The old way — the big government way — has failed. It’s time to tackle welfare dependency a new way — the Big Society way.
“We’re going to change the whole way welfare is done in this country so everyone takes responsibility and plays their part.
Labour leader Gordon Brown claimed today that his only expenses “crime” had been to pay his cleaner too much.
The prime minister was ordered to repay more than £12,000 last year after a review of his claims by auditor Sir Thomas Legg.
In an interview with listeners of BBC Radio One today, he said that he had only been pulled up because he had paid a “decent wage” for his cleaning.
He said he needed the work done because he had two homes, two children and a working wife.
One of the listeners interjected that it was “insulting” that the taxpayer had been paying for his cleaning.
But Mr Brown insisted that, as an MP, he had to be in two places at once and so needed a second home.
“What do I do? I have got two children and a wife that was working at the time,” he said.
He said the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) would mean MPs no longer had control of their pay and allowances.
And he insisted Labour’s planned reforms of elections to the Commons and the introduction of a democratic Lords would help usher in a new kind of politics in Britain.