Lib Dems 'hopeful' of deal with Tories

The Liberal Democrats say they are hopeful a deal can be reached with the Tories today on forming a government in the UK.

Despite a weekend of marathon talks behind closed doors no deal has yet been reached.

The Liberal Democrats claim there's still a "mountain to climb'' with the Conservatives.

As he left home this morning, David Cameron remained upbeat.

“I am always positive,” he said.

Mr Cameron, who is meeting his negotiating team at party headquarters ahead of the resumption of the talks, will gather his shadow cabinet for a meeting at around 4pm before addressing the party's MPs at 6pm, a source said.

Mr Clegg is to meet his MPs at 1pm, a Liberal Democrat source said.

Tory former Cabinet minister John Redwood said Mr Cameron may be able to form a minority government with a “minimalist” programme if the Lib Dems agreed to support its budget.

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “I think it might be easiest for the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to come to a minimalist agreement so that we can have a minority Conservative government supported by the Lib Dems on common legislation which we accept.

“But I think the best might be the enemy of the good at the moment.

“We don’t have a lot of time on our hands, given the fragile state of the economy and the markets.

“So I would say why not reach an agreement that Mr Cameron should go into Downing Street, lead a minority administration, joint Queen’s Speech programme of those Bills which Liberal Democrats and Conservatives are both happy with - getting rid of ID cards, improving our civil liberties, for example – and the Lib Dems promising that they won’t vote the budget down.”

Julian Huppert, the new Lib Dem MP for Cambridge, said electoral reform was not necessarily a stumbling block.

He told Today: “I think it would be very hard to see how a deal could leave out electoral reform. I think we have to see fixed-term Parliaments, much more power of recall, a whole change in the way Parliament works, because I think people have said that they want to see a different way of doing politics.

“But it depends on the whole mixture. If we got all the rest of our manifesto, I’d clearly live with that.”

Chancellor Alistair Darling said the Tories and Lib Dems should decide today whether they could cut a deal.

He told Today: “For my part, I don’t think it will do any good to let this process drag on.

“I understand that the Liberals and the Conservatives are engaged in talks today. I hope that by the end of today they will decide whether they can do a deal or not.

“We have made it clear that if they can’t then, of course, we are ready to listen to the Liberals.”

Former Liberal leader Lord Steel said a deal with Labour was still a ``possible scenario'' because ``there has to be a plan B''.

He told the Today programme: “That’s very much alive. The two leaders spoke yesterday.

“There has to be a plan B because otherwise the Tories would think it’s a one-way street.”

He said a fixed term may be a condition for any deal with Mr Cameron’s party.

“It could be one year, it could be two years, it could be four years.

“Whatever it is, it has to be clear to the public that this government is going to go on for a definite period.

“I hope it’s his (Mr Clegg’s) view. Certainly the last time I talked to him about it, before the election, that was his view.”

The peer said Europe and electoral reform were two of the “major obstacles” to a deal with the Conservatives “but it’s not impossible”.

Tory former prime minister Sir John Major warned the Lib Dems that their dream of changing the electoral system to a form of proportional representation (PR) could not be guaranteed by striking a deal with Labour despite whatever promises were made.

He said: “It is very difficult to see that the Labour Party have a majority in their party for full-scale proportional representation.”

Some people within Labour were as opposed to PR as “the most die- hard Conservatives”.

He said sweeping constitutional changes should not be drawn up “on the back of an envelope” in a rushed deal.

“The normal circumstance when we look at serious constitutional change is not that we suddenly make off-the-cuff decisions. Traditionally there has been a lot of discussion, debate, perhaps even a Speaker’s conference, though many people would think that would take too long.

“I think to suddenly draw up plans on the back of an envelope and decide to make really material changes like that would be likely to ensure that we reach the wrong sort of decision.”

He told Today that proportional representation would make the current political haggling the normal outcome of any election.

Sir John said a deal between Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg “may not be one which isn’t entirely amicable either for the Liberals or the Conservatives but necessity compels you to make compromises on these occasions and that is what I hope and believe is happening”.