Tories won’t change strategy despite ‘desperation’ claim

David Cameron has signalled he will resist pressure to rethink his British general election tactics, after Ed Miliband said the hallmark of the Conservative campaign was “desperation”.

Miliband accused the Tories of sinking into personal abuse and said that a failure to make a breakthrough in the polls had panicked Cameron’s party into making “unfunded and unbelievable” spending promises.

But Cameron insisted the Conservatives were making a “very strong argument” and said he would continue to frame the May 7 election as a choice between himself and Mr Miliband as prime minister.

“Desperation is becoming the hallmark of David Cameron and this Tory campaign,” said Miliband.

But Cameron retorted: “There is a choice of leaders and there is a choice of teams to run this country,” he said. “I will be talking about that the day before polling day as I am today.”

Labour was buoyed by three opinion polls giving them a national lead of 3% to 6% after weeks in which Tories appeared to be very slowly edging into a lead.

And defence secretary Michael Fallon’s claim that Miliband was ready to “stab the United Kingdom in the back” over nuclear weapons was poorly-received even by traditionally Tory-backing newspapers like The Daily Telegraph, which branded it “ill-judged”.

Meanwhile, Ukip’s deputy leader criticised the European Union for refusing to recognise the “democratic” referendum in Crimea backing its annexation by Russia.

Paul Nuttall said he understood why Russian president Vladimir Putin seized the territory.

Putin’s actions in Ukraine — including backing separatist rebels in a bloody civil war in the east of the country — have been widely condemned in the west

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