Clegg plays down talk of Tory deal
Updated on 14 March 2010
The Liberal Democrats would be the 'guarantor' of the economy, if there is a hung parliament after the next election, the party leader Nick Clegg has promised.
Mr Clegg told his spring conference he would not be the "kingmaker" and tried to distance himself from talk of a post-election deal with the Conservatives.
Privately a number of Liberal Democrat MPs have claimed that would provoke a backlash within the party.
"I am not the kingmaker. The 45 million voters of Britain are the kingmakers. They give politicians their marching orders, not the other way round."
Insisting that the Lib Dems were not a "wasted" vote, he suggested that the party was in fact a small step from emerging as the dominant force in the House of Commons.
He said: "Almost one in four voters chose the Liberal Democrats at the last election. If that increased to one in three, we could lead the next government.
"This election is a time for voters to choose, not a time for politicians to play footsie with each other.
"The party which gets the strongest mandate from the voters will have the moral authority to be the first to seek to govern."
He pointed to the fact that 32 per cent of people did not vote for Labour or the Tories at the last general election as evidence that the two-party system was giving way.
However, two new polls this morning showed that Mr Clegg was well short of winning a third of the popular vote.
According to ICM they were on 21 per cent, and according to YouGov just 17 per cent.
The polls also indicated that the Tories' lead over Labour at, respectively, four points and seven points, was not enough to guarantee Mr Cameron a clear Commons majority.
