British election frontrunner rules out coalition deal
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Britain's Conservative leader David Cameron has ruled out any chance of forming a coalition with the Liberal Democrat party in the event of a hung parliament after Thursday's British general election.
Cameron needs just 14 more seats to secure a parliament majority and he now appears confident his party could win a majority of seats in the House of Commons or that it would be able to form a minority government with the informal support of Unionist members of parliament from Northern Ireland, the staunchly Conservative newspaper "The Daily Telegraph" reported Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the spectacular success of Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg in live TV debates with the other two main party leaders, and his party's significant increase in opinion poll support has seen him cast in the role of kingmaker, able to turn either to Labor or the Conservatives to help form a government in the event of a hung parliament.
But Cameron has signaled that he is confident he will not need the Lib Dems - whose price would almost certainly be electoral reform, something most Conservatives oppose.
On the campaign trail on Monday, Cameron announced a new election gimmick -- In a first for British elections Cameron will be targeting nightworkers.
"We are going to be campaigning incredibly hard in the last three days, including a 24-hour campaign from Tuesday night right through to Wednesday night, travelling the whole length and breadth of the country," Cameron said.
The ruling Labor party looks set for defeat, its first in four general elections, and would never consider a coalition with Cameron's party.
Instead, a senior figure on Monday called on supporters to vote for the Lib Dems in constituencies where they could keep the Conservatives out.
In a magazine interview, Education Secretary Ed Balls said Labor supporters should consider voting for the Lib Dems if it helped beat the Conservatives. "I always want the Labor candidate to win, but I recognize there's an issue in places ... and I want to keep the Tories out."
"It will be very tough for us to get a majority. But it will be very tough for the Tories to get a majority. Who turns out to be the largest party remains to be seen."
His move is an admission that Labor's best hope of retaining some power is to limit the number of seats the Conservatives would gain and to form a coalition or an agreement with the Lib Dems once the result of the election is known.
Labor leader Gordon Brown, who has had a traumatic election campaign that has seen his party overtaken by the Lib Dems in opinion polls, made an appeal on Monday aimed at highlighting Labor's economic and social policies as being better than those of the Conservatives.
"What we risk under the Tories is a double-dip recession, with 6 billion pounds (9 billion U.S. dollars) taken out of the economy this year, and cuts to tax credits and public services. Their slogans may be modern, but their policies are those of the 1930s and the 1980s," he said in a newspaper interview.
In a show of bravado on Monday, Lib Dem leader Clegg took his campaign into previously safe Labor seats where his party now claims it may do well.
Speaking in Lewisham in southern London, Clegg attacked Cameron for arrogantly assuming he would win on Thursday. "I have a simple message for David Cameron: in this country you don't inherit power, you have to earn it."
Clegg was pleased to unveil his latest gimmick, the support of several celebrities, including Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe and Oscar-nominated film star Colin Firth.
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