Leaders prepare final push in tight UK election

May 05, 2015

Britain's political leaders on Tuesday began a final push for votes ahead of this week's knife-edge general election while preparing for the likelihood of drawn-out negotiations once polls close.

LONDON - Britain's political leaders on Tuesday began a final push for votes ahead of this week's knife-edge general election while preparing for the likelihood of drawn-out negotiations once polls close.

Prime Minister David Cameron, whose Conservatives are neck and neck with the opposition Labour party in opinion polls, launched a 36-hour tour of the country that will see him campaign through the night up to the last minute.

Neither of the two main parties is expected to win a clear majority in the House of Commons after Thursday's vote. This would mean days or even weeks of negotiations after the election as both sought to team up with smaller parties to take power.

Nevertheless, Cameron urged voters to give his party a clear mandate to govern, saying the alternative was years of "backroom deals" and "bribes" as Labour sought to form a government with the support of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP).

"There is still time to determine the outcome of this election," Cameron said on the campaign trail with London Mayor Boris Johnson in north London.

"Don't talk about predicting the future -- shape the future with your vote."

Labour leader Ed Miliband sought to focus on the state-run National Health Service after days of questions about whether he would work with Nicola Sturgeon's SNP to govern.

"Britain faces a clear choice on Thursday: between a Labour government that will put working people first or a Tory government that will only ever work for the privileged few," he said.

Miliband has ruled out a formal deal with the SNP but it is thought he could be prepared to work with them on a vote-by-vote basis to take power in a minority government.

Second vote before Christmas?

While neither of the two main party leaders is talking in public about the possibility of a minority government, the polls suggest that Britain is heading that way for the first time since 1997.

The BBC's poll of polls puts the Conservatives and Labour at 34 percent and 33 percent respectively, figures that have barely shifted since the start of the election.

It is thought that neither of the main parties will win a clear majority in the 650-seat House of Commons -- in practice 323, since Irish nationalists Sinn Fein and the speaker do not take up their seats.

Therefore the role of smaller parties such as the Liberal Democrats and the SNP is likely to be crucial.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, whose centrist party has been the junior partner in Cameron's Conservative-led coalition for the past five years, openly raised the prospect of a second election this year on the campaign trail.

He said that only his party, which is keeping open the possibility of backing either of the two main parties, could help create a stable government by working with the Conservatives or Labour.

"Everybody knows that no one will win this election, even if David Cameron and Ed Miliband won't admit it publicly," Clegg said.

"The last thing Britain needs is a second election before Christmas. But that is exactly what will happen if Ed Miliband and David Cameron put their own political interest ahead of the national interest."

But the Liberal Democrats could lose half their 57 members of parliament, and Clegg himself is fighting to keep his seat.

Meanwhile, the SNP could win more than 50 of the 59 seats in Scotland, despite losing last year's independence referendum.

Sturgeon has vowed to block the Conservatives and wants to work with Labour while extracting concessions such as stopping austerity cuts and scrapping Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent submarines, based in Scottish waters.

Sturgeon accused Cameron of "desperation" in his comments against the SNP and vowed to shut his party out of government.

"The fact of the matter is, if there's an anti-Tory (Conservative) majority on Friday morning, I want to see that anti-Tory majority come together to get the Tories out, but then make sure that it's replaced with something better," she said.

AFP
 

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