The British prime minister David Cameron touched down in Belfast on Tuesday during a whistle-stop general election campaigning tour of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England.
Mr Cameron said his message was that “there is one month to save the UK from Labour’s disastrous policy of more debt and taxes”.
Mr Cameron did not accept that the Stormont House Agreement had unravelled. “It is stalled but I am confident we will get the show back on the road,” he told reporters at George Best Belfast City Airport.
The election is on May 7th and a theme of Mr Cameron’s tour of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England is that voters have just one month to decide how the UK will be governed for the next five years.
He argued that an Ed Miliband Labour-led government would be detrimental to Britain's finances.
Mr Cameron would not be drawn in the possibility of a hung parliament , nor the possibility that he might need DUP support to form a government. He said the Conservatives were only 23 seats short of an overall majority and his objective was to achieve that single-government majority.
“I am going to spend the next 30 days campaigning for and fighting for an all-out Conservative majority,” he said.
“If I fall short you can ask me afterwards but I am not going to speculate on this now. I am going to fight for the majority that I think we can win and I think the country needs because it would be more accountable and more decisive government,” he added.
Nonetheless, the fact that Mr Cameron spent just less than two hours in East Belfast is viewed with some significance as this is one of the cockpit constituencies in the Westminster election in Northern Ireland.
It is where former Belfast lord mayor Gavin Robinson is hoping to win back East Belfast for the DUP after Naomi Long of Alliance sensationally took the seat from First Minister Peter Robinson in the 2010 election.
The DUP potentially could win 8 or 9 seats in Northern Ireland which has a total of 18 constituencies. With the polls so close the DUP, as the largest of the North’s parties, potentially could have a role in deciding whether Mr Cameron or Mr Miliband leads the next British government.
During and in advance of this election campaign DUP leader Mr Robinson has insisted that his party could have a "kingmaker" part in determining whether the next British government is led by the Conservatives or Labour.
Mr Robinson has not made any commitment about who the DUP would support were there to be a hung parliament after May 7th apart from saying he would act in the interests of Northern Ireland.
Both Mr Cameron and Mr Miliband and other senior Tory and Labour politicians have been wooing DUP politicians in recent months, anxious to try to keep them onside should they need their support to form the next British government.
During his brief visit Mr Cameron also met local Tory candidates. The Conservatives are standing in 16 of the North’s 18 constituencies.
Mr Cameron arrived in Northern Ireland from Scotland this morning and then flew on to Cardiff and then to Cornwall.
He visited the Game of Thrones set in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast close to George Best Belfast City Airport where he landed shortly before 11 am.
The set is a regular port of call for visiting VIPs to Northern Ireland with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip touring the set last June where she met the cast and crew.
