Leaders debate three: immigration centre stage
Updated on 29 April 2010
In their final TV debate, the leaders clash on immigration and banking reform. A Brown win on points, says Channel 4 News Political Editor Gary Gibbon. But a post-debate ITV/ComRes poll puts the Tories on top with 35 per cent.
The ITV News/ComRes poll suggests a close finish between David Cameron, with 35 per cent, and Nick Clegg, with 33 per cent. Gordon Brown lags in third position with 26 per cent.
Another poll conducted by YouGov for The Sun found David Cameron had scored a decisive 41 per cent, against 32 per cent for the Liberal Democrat leader and 25 per cent for Labour.
Although the liveliness of the exchanges tailed off towards the end of the 90 minutes, tonight's event was, in the view of Channel 4 News Political Editor Gary Gibbon, a better debate to watch than the previous two.
Gordon Brown appeared to take the initiative from the start of the final leaders debate in Birmingham tonight.
In his opening statement, he acknowledged yesterday’s "bigotgate" gaffe, announcing: "There's a lot to this job – and I don’t always get it right."
He went on to pledge that he would allow nothing to happen to Britain to drag it back into recession.
Blogging early in the debate, Gary Gibbon wrote about Gordon Brown's opening statement: "Wow! What an opening address... Everything he hasn't done before: clear, forceful, he looked passionate and warned of peril."
Nearly 90 minutes later, Gary Gibbon concluded that Gordon Brown had "won" this evening's exchange. "Gordon raised his game and spoke in ways that cut through."
The highlight of the 90-minute debate was a heated exchange on immigration between the three leaders.
David Cameron claimed the Liberal Democrats were planning an amnesty for 600,000 illegal immigrants – a sum that would double if those immigrants were allowed to bring in a relative each.
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, rejected this, saying the only person advocating such a measure was the Tory London mayor, Boris Johnson.
And he rounded on David Cameron, saying: "Every time you talk about our policy, it's wrong."
It was a point taken up by Gary Gibbon in his blog. He writes: "Nick Clegg scored a hit against the others in saying they constantly misrepresent his policy. 'If you hear them talk about it, just assume they're misleading you,' he said."
Gordon Brown’s contribution to this section of the debate was to assert that both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats were wrong on immigration. He said Nick Clegg was wrong to wrong to allow people to enter Britain illegally and David Cameron was wrong to propose a cap on immigration.
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On taxes, Gordon Brown repeatedly returned to the Conservative proposal to cut inheritance tax. "How can David justify an inheritance tax cut for millionaires when he's proposed to cut child tax credits?” he asked. "It's simply unfair and immoral."
David Cameron's riposte was to say Gordon Brown had repeatedly got his facts wrong – on defence spending, for example.
The focus of tonight's 90-minute debate was the economy, and questions ranged across the banking system, Britain’s manufacturing, state benefits and equal opportunities for all.
On the banking collapse, Nick Clegg stated that both Labour and Conservative governments had been "far too close to the City", while Gordon Brown said Tory plans to cut corporation tax for banks mean it was "the same old Conservative party".
Mr Cameron replied: "You're damn right I want to cut taxes for businesses!" Earlier, he promised a Conservative administration would put the Bank of England back in charge of regulating the banks. In a reference to the FSA, he said: "The banks were regulated, but regulated badly."
In his concluding statment after a total of four and a half hours of live televised debate, the Conservative leader said he believed the test of a society was how it looked after the most frail and the poorest.
"That's true in good times," he said, "but it's even more true in difficult times."
Mr Cameron acknowledged that there would be difficult decisions, but he said: "I want to lead us through those to better times ahead."
He warned: "If you vote Labour you're going to get more of the same. If you vote Liberal, as you've seen tonight, it's just uncertainty."
And he ended: "If you vote Conservative on Thursday you can have a new, fresh government, making a clean break and taking our country in a new direction."
In Nick Clegg's final statement, he urged voters to follow their instincts next Thursday. "Together we can change Britain for good," he said.
He admitted that he could offer no guarantee that problems would be solved overnight. "But I can guarantee you that I will work tirelessly to deliver fairness for you."
"This is your election. This is your country," he said. "When you go to vote next week, choose the future you want."
The Liberal Democrat leader concluded: "This time you can make the difference."
Gordon Brown rounded off the third debate by thanking everyone who had been involved in the debates over the past three weeks.
He conceded that the general election might produce a result where David Cameron became prime minister, "perhaps supported by Nick Clegg".
But Mr Brown warned that the Conservatives "would put the recovery immediately at risk with an emergency budget". And he returned to his anti-inheritance tax theme, warning that under the Tories the richest cuts would go to the richest people in the country.
"Things are too important to be left to risky policies under these two people," the Labour leader warned.
He concluded: "It's up to the people to decide - and it's your decision."
