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Liberal Democrats predict election victory

21 April 2010 20:00 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A member of Nick Cleggâ€™s front bench team has become the first senior Liberal Democrat to publicly talk up the partyâ€™s chances of forming the next Government, APA reports quoting â€œThe Telegraphâ€.
Alistair Carmichael, the partyâ€™s Scottish affairs spokesman, said it was â€œincreasingly likelyâ€ the Lib Dems will either be the largest party in a coalition or win an outright majority on May 6.
Mr Clegg has been keen to avoid a â€œDavid Steel momentâ€ after the former Liberal leader told his party in 1981 to â€œgo back to your constituenciesâ€ and prepare for Government.
But Mr Carmichael said last Thursdayâ€™s televised debate, which resulted in a surge in support for his party, had been a watershed and his party could now win overall control at Westminster.
David Cameron, the Tory leader, has warned a vote for the Lib Dems will result in a hung parliament and allow Gordon Brown to remain Prime Minister for five more years.
Launching the Lib Demsâ€™ Scottish manifesto in Edinburgh, Mr Carmichael refused to discuss coalition deals with Labour and instead talked up the chances of a Nick Clegg premiership.
â€œI tell you what I think is increasingly likely is a Liberal Democrat Government â€“ lots more Liberal Democrat MPs,â€ he said, before attacking the Tories and Labour.
â€œThe game changed last Thursday. Since the end of the Second World War, for the last 65 years, theyâ€™ve been doing there best to scare people into voting for them.â€
A range of the most recent opinion polls show the Lib Dems fighting the Tories for the lead, with support for Mr Cleggâ€™s party running in the early thirties.
Professor John Curtice, Britainâ€™s leading psephologist, said the partyâ€™s would need 37 per cent support to be the largest party in a hung parliament and about 40 per cent to win the election outright.
But Mr Carmichael was insistent his party could lead the next British Government, claiming Labour and the Tories â€œcannot copeâ€ with the challenge posed by his party.
â€œWould you have predicted last week where we would be today?â€ he retorted
â€œSo how on earth can you predict where weâ€™re going to be in two weeksâ€™ time? That is the scale of the change in British politics.â€
He cited the 37 per cent figure to become the largest party in a hung parliament but added: â€œWe could have overall control.â€
Professor Curtice, of Strathclyde University, said the Lib Dems needed a second surge in support almost as large as their first one to win power.
â€œIf they can push it a bit further, weâ€™re in a world where they really are equal players,â€ he said.
A foreword to the Scottish manifesto by Mr Clegg and Tavish Scott, the partyâ€™s Scottish leader, attacked the legacy of 65 years of â€œred-blue governmentâ€.
Mr Scott admitted the Lib Dems had shared power with Labour for eight years at Holyrood, but claimed a longer-term view was required.