General election 2015: Nick Clegg on why the Lib Dems need to stay in power

Clegg stakes claim to second coalition at manifesto launch beset by some minor technical issues
Nick Clegg at the Lib Dems' manifesto launch today
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Nick Clegg today staked his claim to a second term in coalition by saying the Conservatives are too cruel and Labour too stupid to govern alone.

Unveiling his party’s manifesto in London, he said: “The Liberal Democrats will add a heart to a Conservative government and we will add a brain to a Labour one.”

With a hung parliament looking like a certainty, Mr Clegg asked voters to imagine Ukip leader Nigel Farage walking into No 10 with a Tory Prime Minister. He made himself the only major party leader to admit openly what he claimed voters already knew — that neither David Cameron nor Ed Miliband will win an overall majority on May 7.

“You know — and they know — that neither of them will win outright,” he told supporters at a former dairy in Battersea.

He argued: “So what really matters is who they will have by their side.” Trepidation that voters may produce a deadlocked parliament increased today when the man who brokered the 2010 coalition talks, former Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell, said they were easy compared with what might come in May.

“I think it was a piece of cake compared to what might happen this time, to be honest,” he told BBC radio.

“This time round I think they will include minority governments and possibly some kind of mix. There could be a party in coalition with a second one but having a supply and confidence deal with a third party.”

He said parties were clearly already signalling to each other about their priorities but warned this was unlikely to speed things up in May, adding: “There is quite a lot of public foreplay, if you like, and we will see what is consummated in the weeks ahead.”

The 33,000-word manifesto contained no new promises, despite being the longest and most detailed document from the major parties, because of Lib-Dem rules that all proposals must be voted through in public.

Key pledged fleshed out included an extra £2.5 billion on education spending, another £8 billion on the NHS, more childcare, doubling the number of apprentices and raising the tax-free allowance to “at least” £12,500.

In contrast to Labour’s vows, Mr Clegg said he would eradicate the structural deficit by 2017/18 and allow spending to rise in line with the economy afterwards.

With the party haunted by its broken pledge on tuition fees, much of the 160-page manifesto was devoted to listing achievements in government with the Conservatives, including the Pupil Premium and curbing Tory cuts in welfare.

Mr Clegg said his party would be vital after the election to stop the bigger parties “lurching to the Left or Right”.

He added: “We won’t allow the Conservatives to cut too much and jeopardise our schools and hospitals. And we won’t allow Labour to borrow too much and risk our economy again.”

He warned that if he did not go into a second coalition, then either Mr Farage or SNP grandee Alex Salmond probably would.

“Someone is going to hold the balance of power on the 8th of May — but it could be Nigel Farage. It could be Alex Salmond. Or it could be me and the Liberal Democrats,” he said.

“So ask yourself this: Do you want Nigel Farage walking through the door of No 10? Do you want Alex Salmond sat at the Cabinet table? Or do you want the Liberal Democrats?” Today’s document promised “cradle to college” care, raising the education budget for English people aged from two to 19 to £55 billion by 2020 — some £5 billion a year more than the Tories promised and £2.5 billion more than Labour.

Senior Lib-Dem David Laws said the party had learned “the lessons we have had in government over tuition fees”.

Mr Clegg’s launch got off to a bad start when the Lib-Dem battle bus broke down in Brixton last night.

And today a power failure at the venue, Battersea’s TestBed1, extinguished the lights at the end of the launch, leaving TV journalists broadcasting in semi-darkness. Mr Clegg also had a faulty microphone.

A new poll-of-polls today pointed to a hung parliament with 22 days to go until the General Election. It suggested Labour is on 34.1 per cent, 0.7 points ahead of the Conservatives, who were on 33.4 per cent. But the Liberal Democrats are stuck on low single figures.

Speaking in front of a montage of handprints, Mr Clegg seized on the polls, saying: “The truth is a few hundred votes in a small number of seats could decide whether it is Liberal Democrat MPs, Ukip MPs or SNP MPs who the next prime minister will be forced to listen to. That’s why every vote for the Liberal Democrats matters.”

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