Parties put finishing touches to manifestos

BRITAIN’S main political parties were putting the finishing touches to their general election manifestos last night, as they prepared for the first week of full-scale campaigning for the May 6 poll.

Labour will be first off the blocks with the launch in the West Midlands tomorrow of a manifesto which aides said will be “ambitious but affordable” and will focus on rebuilding the economy, renewing public services and restoring trust in politics. The document’s author Ed Miliband has acknowledged that Labour cannot “promise the earth” in Britain’s straitened circumstances, but said the party would reject a “business-as-usual” approach to the country’s problems.

Meanwhile, David Cameron said the Conservative platform – to be unveiled tomorrow – would be centred on the theme of “we’re all in this together”.

In contrast to Labour’s restrained programme, theTory manifesto will offer a range of “positive agenda-setting ideas” to woo voters, including betteraccess to GPs and a crackdown on state “snooping”.

Speaking after joining cricket legend Ian Botham on a four-mile sponsored walk for charity in Sutton Coldfield, Cameron said he wanted to see a “great national coming together” to solve Britain’s problems.

He said: “I think there’s a contrast in this campaign, frankly: no new ideas from Labour, a very negative campaign all about attacks and trying to scare people, and very positive agenda-setting ideas from the Conservatives.”

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg warned of Greek-style social unrest in the wake of the election if a Conservative government wins power by a narrow margin and then tries to push through draconian spending cuts.

The Liberal Democrat leader said he feared “serious social strife” if an administration with minimal support raised taxes, laid off public sector workers and froze wages.

“Imagine the Conservatives go home and get an absolute majority, on 25% of the eligible vote,” he told The Observer. “They then turn around in the next week or two and say we’re going to chuck up VAT to 20%, we’re going to start cutting teachers, cutting police and the wage bill in the public sector. I think if you’re not careful in that situation . . . you’d get Greek-style unrest.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday continued his low-key campaigning with a visit to the home of a north London couple who were helped onto the housing ladder by a Government scheme.

After taking tea with Cheryl Revill and Richard Belle, he said: “What I want do is to cure the recovery, to make sure that we don’t go back into recession.”