More talks for Tories and Lib Dems
Updated on 09 May 2010
After a seven hour meeting on Sunday which was described as "very positive and productive" the Conservative and Liberal Democrat negotiators will meet again "within the next 24 hours".
Leaving at the Cabinet Office just before six pm on Sunday evening, Conservative negotiator William Hague said they had "some very positive and productive discussions over many key policy areas."
"The issues that we have covered have included political reform, economic issues and reduction of the deficit, banking reform, civil liberties, environmental issues," he continued.
"So we have good discussions about all of those areas. We intend to meet again over the next 24 hours. We are agreed that a central part of any agreement that we make will be economic stability and the reduction of the budget deficit."
Hague then said that both teams were reporting back to their party leaders. Shortly after the Conservative team left the Cabinet Office, Danny Alexander negotiating on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, echoed his Tory counterpart.
But while the Tory and Lib Dem negotiating teams were meeting, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg were holding a secret meeting in the Foreign Office. Clegg also spoke to the prime minister by telephone yesterday. "Everyone's trying to be constructive for the good of the country," the Lib Dem leader said this morning.
"I'm very keen that the Liberal Democrats should play a constructive role at a time of great economic uncertainty to provide a good government that this country deserves.
"Throughout that we will continue to be guided by the big changes we want - tax reform, improving education for all children, sorting out the banks and building a new economy from the rubble of the old, and extensive fundamental political reform."
The face-to-face meeting between Labour and the Lib Dem leaders followed a meeting between David Cameron and Nick Clegg last night which lasted 70 minutes on the neutral ground in Whitehall, with both sides describing the encounter as "constructive and amicable".
Social media protests against Con-Lib deal
Over 42,000 people have joined a Facebook group urging the Liberal Democrat party not to enter into coalition with the Conservatives.
The 'We don't want the Liberal Democrats to make a deal with the Conservatives' group said they devised the page after speaking to Nick Clegg's party. According to the site the Liberal Democrats urged the creators to start the group to see how many people objected.
The social networking site has since shut down the group after it reportedly grew to over 42,000 members in just 36 hours. Facebook's regulations state that a group cannot exist with over 5,000 members - a page has been since created as a replacement.
The shutdown of the group led to speculation about censorship after users complained that Facebook was 'silencing tens of thousands of people'.
Earlier, on Sunday morning, Shadow Schools secretary Michael Gove said he was prepared to give up his cabinet post to a Lib Dem.
"David Laws, who's the Lib Dem education spokesman, is - and I said this before the election result - thoughtful, flexible, and someone who wants to improve our education system," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr.
Gove, who is not part of the negotiating party, said there was a determination in the Conservative party to make things work in the national interest.
The Conservative parliamentary party are expected to meet on Monday evening.
Brown under pressure
Meanwhile pressure is building on Gordon Brown from within the Labour party, which lost 91 MPs and its Commons majority on Thursday.
More on the future of the government:
- Where is the common ground and conflict between the Lib Dems and the Tories?
- Hung parliament: Who are the dealmakers?
- Follow the day's developments on our live blog
- 'Triple lock' and the hurdles of Lib Dem policy
- Electoral reform to emerge from hung parliament?
Former sports minister Kate Hoey said it would be impossible for Labour to achieve "renewal" until it had a new leader. The Vauxhall MP is the second Labour MP to call for Brown to go in the wake of Thursday's election defeat.
Ms Hoey told BBC Radio Five Live's Stephen Nolan show: "I think he must go and I don't think we will have renewal until we get a new leader."
"I think, deep down, most Labour Party members know that in a short time, one way or another, the prime minister won't be Gordon Brown and he won't be the leader of our party," she said.
Yesterday Bassetlaw MP John Mann said he was echoing the views of many Labour voters in his area by calling for Brown to stand down for the good of both the country and the party.
"It's not tenable for Clegg to reach an accord and prop up Gordon Brown," Mann said.
Sarah Smith: PM leaves Scotland for London under mounting pressure
Gordon Brown has to come back to London because he is still the prime minister. And no matter how much pressure there is on him to resign as leader of the Labour party, he cannot chose to resign as prime minister until it's been worked out who is going to replace him and he has no choice about making that short drive to Buckingham Palace to tell the Queen is no longer her PM.
There is speculation in Westminster he may say something when gets back to Downing Street but sources within his inner circle tell me that no decisions have been made yet about whether he will say anything at all today.
Channel 4 News correspondent Sarah Smith's full analysis: Brown under pressure to quit as Labour leader
A YouGov poll in the Sunday Times found that 62 per cent of voters believe Brown should have accepted defeat on Friday with just 28 per cent saying he was right to hang on.
Just under half - 48 per cent - of those questioned said the new government should be led by the Conservatives - either in a minority administration or at the head of a coalition. Nearly a third - 31 per cent - preferred a Labour/Lib Dem alliance of some form.
