WESTMINSTER 2010:BRITISH PRIME minister Gordon Brown's offer to reform the United Kingdom's voting rules is "a miserable little compromise", Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said.
Shortly before the election campaign Mr Brown, who for years opposed changes to the first-past-the-vote system, offered to hold a referendum next year on replacing the system with the alternative vote.
This would require each MP to have 50 per cent of the vote to get elected.
However, Mr Clegg has now made it clear that the Liberal Democrats’ price for supporting one of the bigger parties in a hung parliament will be an Alternative Vote Plus, which sees some candidates elected from a regional list to ensure a geographical balance.
Conservative leader David Cameron was buoyed somewhat yesterday by his performance in Thursday’s TV debate, though the party is concerned that Mr Clegg did well enough to keep momentum in his campaign.
Privately, senior Conservative figures acknowledge that they may have to reconsider their staunch backing for the first-past-the-post system if they do not win, because it allows voters to make dramatic changes and usually guarantees a majority government.
In such a situation, however, Mr Cameron, by then desperate to stay in his job and coming under criticism from party supporters over his campaign strategy, could find it difficult to get backing from MPs for such concessions.
Polls yesterday reported that the four million audience, higher than expected, for the Sky-hosted TV leaders’ debates had Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg in either first or second place, but all had Mr Brown in third.
However, the figures could be influenced by the fact that younger audiences are responding more positively to Mr Clegg, and their turnout on May 6th is not guaranteed.
Equally, answers to detailed questions put to those polled held some good news for the prime minister in that there was general agreement that the his performance was the most improved on the first debate.
In the debate Mr Brown and the Conservative leader sought to bring the focus on the election battle back to themselves and not on Mr Clegg, during sharp exchanges on foot of weakening economic figures.
The British economy grew by 0.2 per cent in the first three months of the year, below even the cautious expectations of chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling, who is missing from the campaign temporarily as he attends an International Monetary Fund meeting.
Labour hopes to argue that the figures can be used to target the Conservatives’ plans to cut public spending this year, which would, said Mr Brown, “cost thousands and thousands of jobs this year”.
Following criticism of his own campaign, Mr Brown hosted a London press conference yesterday – a rare event in this election – alongside Peter Mandelson and Harriet Harman.
“I will fight as if my life depended on it to win the argument and win the support to get a majority Labour government,” he said.
The prime minister had ordered Mr Mandelson to stay away from the Bristol TV debate. In Manchester last week, the first secretary of state for business dominated post-debate interviews with journalists, particularly when he criticised his Conservative opponent, shadow chancellor George Osborne.
Mr Cameron, in an interview last night with the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman, said the Conservatives will inherit “a complete mess” from the Labour Party should they win the May 6th general election.
“I didn’t come into politics to make these sorts of reductions that we’re going to have to do. The fact is, if we win the election we’re going to inherit a complete mess,” he said.
Labour has already begun to focus on the third debate, which will concentrate on the economy, believing that this is Mr Brown’s strong suit.
“Never forget this is not a gameshow, it’s a general election. I’ve always said that the economy will be decisive,” he said.