Monday, April 26, 2010

Election 2010: Tories to target Labour heartlands

Photobucket
The Conservatives hope to build on their opinion poll lead

The Conservatives are to step up campaigning in seats where Labour are defending healthy majorities, in the wake of the Lib Dem poll surge.

Tory strategists have identified a number of seats where they believe support for Labour is ebbing away.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has said first-past-the-post votes made "no sense at all" in a three-party system.

Lord Mandelson has warned Labour voters in Labour/Tory marginals: "Vote Nick, get Dave and George".

Labour will focus campaigning on its plans for the NHS on Monday, while the Lib Dems are highlighting their plans for a pay rise for junior ranks in the armed forces.

BBC political correspondent Ben Wright said the surge in the polls for the Lib Dems, in the wake of TV prime ministerial debates, had upset both the Tories' and Labour's election strategies.



Third runway

The Tories had hoped to take a swathe of seats from the Lib Dems in south-west England, thought to be needed if they were to get an overall majority.

Now they hope to take seats which have traditionally returned Labour MPs but where they believe the rise in Lib Dem support - at Labour's expense - could make a Conservative win possible. They will start to target those constituencies over the next few days.

The Conservatives are also targeting Lib Dem voters, posting about 500,000 pieces of campaign literature in marginal seats.

Mr Cameron said: "Today I want to speak directly to the people who have idealism and progressive ideals hardwired into their DNA. Everyone who is desperate for real change.

"Whether you've been a Lib Dem voter or a Labour voter or a Green voter - if you care about the environment, if you want action to improve your quality of life, if you care about civil liberties, if you want people power, you need the clean break that a Conservative government can give you."

'Eco-charlatans'

It marks the start of an offensive on two fronts for the Conservatives, as they aim to extend their lead in the opinion polls.

While four polls in Sunday newspapers suggested the party has a clear lead, they still pointed to a hung parliament - with the Conservatives short of an overall majority.

At a press conference in Edinburgh on Monday, Lib Dem leader Mr Clegg faced more questions about his comments on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday - in which he said it would be "preposterous" for Labour to come third in the popular vote, but remain in 10 Downing Street.

He said he had been "pointing out what I think is the obvious, which is we have an irrational and unfair democratic system" which he said was "going well past its sell-by date".

Asked if he would support Labour, if it won the most seats but came third in terms of number of votes, Mr Clegg said "no" and criticised the convention that if there is no clear winner, the current PM has the first right to seek to govern.

But he repeated his belief that if a party won the most seats and the most votes but was short of an overall majority, it had the right to seek to reach out to other parties first.

Mr Clegg said the way in which politicians would "speak to each other" after the election depended on the result and the "priorities that each of the parties sets out".

On whether changing the voting system would be a pre-requisite for Lib Dem support in a coalition, he said electoral reform was "an absolute precondition for renewal in this country".

He will set out his party's plans to boost the pay of junior soldiers as part of their plans for Armed Forces reform - increasing the pay of an Army private by up to £6,000 a year, to bring it into line with the salary of a police constable.

He said Labour had "failed" on the environment, the Conservatives "align themselves with climate change deniers" in Europe and that the next government would be the last that is able to stop "dangerous" climate change.

The Green Party responded to Mr Clegg's assertion that they "cannot make a difference in Westminster" by calling his party the "biggest eco-charlatans on this part of the planet".

As Labour switch their focus to the NHS in England, with hints they will spell out their vision in even more detail than the manifesto, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson rallied party supporters in an e-mail.

Saying they were "in the fight for our political lives", he reminded them that a third of the electorate remained undecided.

"In his interviews, Nick Clegg has been making clear his hostility to Labour and his preference to side with the Tories in a coalition if this arises," he said.

"Or, in other words, vote Nick and get Dave and George," a reference to the Conservative leader and his shadow chancellor George Osborne.












0 comments:

Today Top Recent Posts Here.


Blogger Widgets
Related Posts with Thumbnails

Entertainment News