British prime minister Gordon Brown today issued a plea to voters to judge him on economic competence and not on his personality, in the wake of yesterday’s row over him calling a pensioner “bigoted”.
In the third and final televised leaders’ debate of the UK general election campaign this evening, Mr Brown acknowledged that he got it wrong yesterday, but insisted: “I do know how to run the economy in good times and in bad.”
Conservative leader David Cameron said that Britain’s economy was “stuck in a rut” and the country needed change to get it moving again.
And the Liberal Democrats’ Nick Clegg accused the other two parties of getting Britain into its economic mess, and said they were not the right people to get it out again.
The BBC debate, staged at Birmingham University exactly a week before the May 6th polling day, focussed on the theme of the economy.
Mr Brown sought to use it to draw a line over his gaffe yesterday, when a radio microphone caught him telling an aide that 66-year-old Gillian Duffy was “a bigoted woman”.
In his opening address, the prime minister said: “There is a lot to this job and, as you saw yesterday, I don’t get all of it right.
“But I do know how to run the economy, in good times and in bad.”
In a bid to persuade voters that the election should be a judgment on Britain’s economic interests and not a referendum on his personality, Mr Brown said: “It’s not my future that matters. It’s your future on the ballot paper next Thursday, and I am the one to fight for your future.”
Neither Mr Cameron nor Mr Clegg made any reference to the “bigotgate” row as the debate got under way.
Mr Cameron highlighted his guarantee that Britain would not join the euro in his opening statement, in a clear attempt to push to the centre of the debate an issue on which he believes the Liberal Democrats are out of step with public opinion.
The Tory leader said: “Our economy is stuck in a rut and we need change to get it moving.
He promised change to reward work and tackle welfare dependency; “fix” the banks; encourage manufacturing; and get value for money from public services.
In an apparent echo of US president Barack Obama’s “Yes we can” slogan“, Mr Cameron said that when he was asked if the government should reward those who work hard and save, ”I say: ‘Yes we should’“.
Mr Clegg tried to draw a line between the Lib Dems and the other two parties, arguing: “We need to do things differently to build a new, stronger and fairer economy. The way they got us into this mess is not the way out.”
And he added: “Of course, they will tell you tonight that these things can’t be done. I think we have got to do things differently to deliver the fairness, the prosperity and the jobs that you and your family deserve.”
The three party leaders clashed over their plans for National Insurance, with Mr Cameron repeating his claim that it was a “tax on jobs” while Mr Brown insisted that Tory plans to spend £6 billion reversing the NI hike would risk tipping the country into a double-dip recession.
Addressing the Tory leader directly, Mr Brown said: “David, you have just got it wrong economically and it is the same mistakes and the some old Conservative Party as in the 1980s and 1990s.”
Mr Clegg repeatedly accused the two other leaders of indulging in “political point-scoring”. He said both Mr Brown and Mr Cameron had “no details” on their economic plans and called for a cross-party council to set a framework for deficit reduction.
The Labour leader said that both Tories and Liberal Democrats wanted to cut back tax credits.
In a possible hint of Labour’s approach in the case of a hung Parliament, the Prime Minister said: “I will never form an alliance with a Conservative Party that cuts tax credits.”
When pressed by moderator David Dimbleby over whether the same would apply to the Lib Dems, Mr Brown made no such promise.
The Labour leader said he had to “speak out” on Conservative plans to raise inheritance tax thresholds, which he said was “simply unfair and immoral” at a time when tax credits could be cut.
Mr Cameron said that Mr Brown was “misleading” voters about his party’s intentions.
“So often, the Prime Minister gets his facts wrong,” said the Tory leader.
“On this issue of tax credits we are saying we like tax credits and will keep tax credits, but for families earning over £50,000 we think we can’t afford tax credits.”
It was “simply not true” for Mr Brown to claim Tory plans would hit lower-income families, said Mr Cameron, adding: “He is trying again to frighten people and actually, he should be ashamed.”
Mr Clegg made a show of exasperation with the other two leaders, saying “Here we go again.”
At a time when eurozone leaders are meeting to try to arrange a bailout for the ailing Greek economy, Mr Cameron attacked the Liberal Democrats’ pro-euro policies.
“People need to know that the Liberal Democrats in their manifesto are still in favour of joining the euro,” he said.
“If we were in the euro now, your taxes and your National Insurance wouldn’t be going to schools and hospitals and police officers, they would be going to bail out Greece.”
Mr Clegg insisted: “I am not advocating joining the euro.”
Lib Dems would recommend euro entry only at a time and in conditions when it would be good for Britain and British jobs, and would subject the question to a referendum, he promised.
In fierce clashes over the banking crisis, Mr Cameron accused the Government of failing to get banks lending to business, while Mr Brown warned that Tory plans for a unilateral tax on financial institutions would risk driving them away from the City of London.
Mr Clegg called for an end to banking bonuses of more than £2,500 and condemned the decision of taxpayer-funded RBS to support the US takeover of major Birmingham employer Cadbury, while Mr Brown promised that he would never allow bankers to act in an irresponsible way again.
But Mr Cameron accused Labour of hitching the whole of the British economy to the banking system.
PA