British prime minister David Cameron today reassured Liberal Democrat voters they were not being "taken for a ride" after a poll showed support for the junior partners in his coalition falling after a tough budget.
Some Lib Dem supporters are uneasy that their centre-left party has teamed up with the centre-right Conservatives in a coalition that is pushing through the toughest budget cuts in living memory.
Mr Cameron was at pains to assure listeners in a phone-in to Yorkshire's Real Radio that Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, had not "sold out" and that the Liberal Democrats were getting their policies implemented.
The Conservative leader said he wanted people who had voted Liberal Democrat in the May 6 election to know that they were not "being taken for a ride in some way."
"They are absolutely not," he said.
A ComRes poll for the Independent
newspaper today showed Lib Dem support had fallen sharply since finance minister George Osborne unveiled a tough emergency budget last week to rein in a record peace-time budget deficit.
Support for the Lib Dems fell to 18 per cent, down five points from a similar poll a week earlier, while Conservative support climbed four points to 40 per cent.
Before the election, the Lib Dems argued that drastic spending cuts should not be attempted before the economic recovery was secure but the party has now come round to the Conservative view that the deficit must be tackled quickly.
Mr Cameron has to avoid disillusionment growing in either party in the coalition that could jeopardise the government's future.
"This is not a Conservative government with a sort of Liberal Democrat appendage. This is a partnership government," the prime minister said.
Mr Cameron also dismissed suggestions from listeners that his government would be similar to that of former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the early 1980s, a period of soaring unemployment and growing social divisions.
Reuters