Electoral reform is shaping up as the key issue in determining what sort of government would emerge in the UK if the May 6 General Election results in a hung Parliament. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg indicated that a deal on proportional representation would be essential to any pact if his party holds the balance of power, describing it as an “absolute pre-condition” for renewal of Britain.
All three British major political parties are failing to come clean on spending cuts that will need to be at least as deep as the 1970s, a leading think tank warned Tuesday. Repairing the public finances will be the 'defining domestic policy task of the next government', the Institute for Fiscal Studies said at a special election briefing.
Britain’s Liberal Democrats said they would not back Primer Minister Gordon Brown if his party came third in the popular vote on May 6, even if the nation's electoral system gave Labour the most parliamentary seats.
British Conservative leader David Cameron gained ground on the Liberal Democrats' Nick Clegg in the leaders’ debate, as polls gave conflicting verdicts on which of the two won.