THE GUARDIAN: Exclusive: Liberal Democrat leader rejects tactical voting, and says the race for PM is between him and Cameron
Nick Clegg today makes a bold pitch to Labour voters, claiming that the Liberal Democrats have supplanted Gordon Brown's party to become the natural home of progressive politics in Britain.
In a Guardian interview, Clegg accuses David Cameron of having no agenda for progressive reform of the country, and says the Lib Dems and Labour come from the same historical tradition.
He says he is rejecting all talk of tactical voting and is instead "going for broke" to maximise his party's share of the vote.
Clegg insists that the tectonic plates of politics are shifting, and the choice has distilled down to a vote for his party or a Conservative party that will "cast the country adrift".
The Lib Dem leader appears to suggest that any post-election arrangement with the Tories would be a coalition of convenience rather than principle when he asserts: "There is a gulf in values between myself and David Cameron," adding: "They have no progressive reform agenda at all – only an unbearable sense of entitlement that it's just their time to govern."
During the two years of his leadership, Clegg has successfully maintained a position equally distant from the Labour and Conservative parties, but today he emphasises that the Liberal Democrats have shared progressive history.
His remarks go further than before in suggesting that if he feels the electorate has given him a choice, his instinct will be to form an alliance of some form with Labour. He holds out no hope of securing electoral reform from Cameron. >>> Patrick Wintour, Allegra Stratton and Aida Edemariam | Friday, April 30, 2010
