Party is taking heart from polls suggesting the support for Lib Dems is soft, writes JEAN EAGLESHAM
THE TORIES insisted yesterday they were confident of getting a working majority on May 6th, defying opinion polls pointing to a hung parliament, even as they ratcheted up warnings on the “horror” of an inconclusive election result.
David Cameron was under pressure to win last night’s second televised leaders’ debate, while tensions surfaced over the failure to achieve a consistent poll lead.
The Spectator– seen as the Tories' house magazine – declares there are "two weeks left to save the Conservative party".
The warning reflects fears that a hung parliament would usher in proportional representation, shutting out the political right from power indefinitely.
The Tories were seeking to counter the Liberal Democrat surge following last week’s debate, with attacks on the third party’s policies, allied to warnings on the risks of a hung parliament.
Senior Tories yesterday declined to discuss any “Plan B”.
George Osborne refused to contemplate deals between a minority Conservative government and a power-broking Lib Dem party.
“No conversations have taken place in Conservative headquarters about the consequences of a hung parliament,” the shadow chancellor told a London press conference.
Ken Clarke, the shadow business secretary, and Osborne both insisted that the evidence from the doorstep belied surveys such as the Ipsos Mori poll for the Evening Standard yesterday showing the Tories and Lib Dems tied on 32 per cent.
“You always have alarms and excursions in elections . . . this one’s going to be won by the Conservatives,” Clarke forecast, adding “a hung parliament fills me with horror”.
Osborne said a clear Conservative win remained the “likely” election outcome because of the “disintegration” of Labour’s campaign.
Pollsters suggested this Tory confidence could reflect the fact that the party’s canvassers were not encountering the under-30 voters driving the Lib Dem surge.
“This is the demographic you’re least likely to encounter on the doorstep,” Stephan Shakespeare, chief executive of YouGov, said.
But he pointed out that “it’s also the age group least likely to vote”.
Cameron tried to recapture the protest vote from Nick Clegg yesterday by attacking politicians who claimed their party had a better record on MPs’ expenses.
“Everybody was doing it and everybody should admit to that,” he told a Torquay audience.
The Tories are taking heart from polling evidence suggesting the electorate is unusually volatile and the support for the Lib Dems is soft.
Fifty-six per cent of the third party's supporters in the Ipsos Mori poll said they had not finally decided how they would vote, compared with 40 per cent of the Tory supporters. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010)