Brown brands policies of Lib Dems a ‘mistake’

GORDON BROWN yesterday hit out at the resurgent Liberal Democrats, branding their economic policies a “mistake” and attacking their plans to cut tax credits and the child trust fund.

The Prime Minister went on the offensive after the latest opinion polls showed a sharp upswing in support for the Lib Dems following Nick Clegg’s success in the first leaders’ debate.

Clegg laughed off suggestions that he was now almost as popular as Winston Churchill as “completely absurd”.

Meanwhile Tory leader David Cameron insisted he would not be changing his campaign tactics, and would continue to “accentuate the positive”.

With one poll suggesting that the Lib Dems had taken the lead in the general election race and others putting the three main parties within a handful of points of each, Mr Brown said that the election was now “wide open”.

In an interview with BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show, the Prime Minister acknowledged he may have come off second best in the debate, but insisted Labour would recover as the focus moved to issues of “substance” – particularly the economy.

“I lost on presentation. I lost on style. Maybe I lost on smiling,” he said. “But I’ve learned at the end of the debate, substance will come through. This isn’t an X Factor talent show.”

r Brown referred pointedly to Clegg’s “inexperience” as he predicted the Lib Dems would now come under “major pressure” over their policy programme.

“I think the Liberals have got to be exposed. They are going to cut child tax credits, they are going to cut the child trust fund, they have got a very strange proposal for the winter fuel allowance for pensioners,” he said.

“I think they’ve made a mistake on their economic policy and I think in the next two weeks we will be able to expose that. We have got the best economic policy for the country.

“It’s not about youth or inexperience. It’s about judgment and you’ve got to be able to make the judgment on the big calls. I think we got it right on the banking crisis and are getting it right on the economy.”

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said that a hung parliament would give disproportionate power to the smaller parties and make it more difficult to pass important business like counter-terrorist legislation.

In his latest campaign bulletin, he predicted support for the Lib Dems would fade away as the public came to understand their policies, including an “amnesty” for illegal immigrants.

“My bet is that most people will not follow through on their current flirtation with Nick,” he said.

Lib Dem treasury spokesman Vince Cable insisted that they would not get carried away by the sudden rush of enthusiasm generated by Clegg’s performance in last Thursday night’s debate.

“We’ve got our feet very firmly on the ground. We know there is a hard battle ahead,” he said.

Clegg, campaigning in Sutton, Surrey, warned that the other parties would start making “all sorts of misleading claims” about the Lib Dems’ policies, but said there was now a real chance to break with the old, two-party politics.

“The opportunity is immense this time,” he said.

“A growing number of people are starting to hope, starting to believe a little door has opened, that maybe this time we can do things differently.”