General Election 2015: Cameron is trying to 'duck, weave and dive' his way back into Downing Street, says Miliband
|
Version 0 of 1. David Cameron has been accused by Labour of trying to “duck, weave and dive” his way back into Downing Street by refusing to defend his record in a head-to-head debate with Ed Miliband. Political commentators questioned the wisdom of Mr Cameron’s decision to stay away from Thursday night’s BBC election debate which included the five main opposition leaders. An analysis of Google searches during the event was topped by the question “Where is the Prime Minister?”. The debate pulled in an average audience of 4.6 million and an estimated total of 8.8 million watched at least part of it on BBC One, the BBC News Channel and Sky News. Seven million people watched the ITV Leaders’ Debates, which included seven party leaders, and around three million watched Jeremy Paxman interview Mr Miliband and Mr Cameron on Channel 4 and Sky News. Afterwards Mr Miliband repeated his challenge to Mr Cameron to debate him one-to-one before polling day. “He wants to duck, weave and dive his way back into Downing Street,” he said. “If he had guts he’d come out, accept my challenge to debate me one-on-one, head-to-head.” Mr Miliband said the Conservatives had tried to make it a general election about leadership. “Well, I’m offering him a debate about leadership. I’m offering him a one-to-one debate about the future of the country. I have been saying week after week, any time, anywhere, any place.” It is understood that James Harding, the BBC’s head of news, told Labour that the corporation was still prepared to host a two-way debate if Mr Cameron agreed to take part. But on his way to launch the Conservatives’ Welsh manifesto, the Prime Minister rejected this, arguing that the public knew enough about each of them to “get the measure of us”. He also insisted Thursday night’s debate was a “hint of the chaos” that Britain would face if his rival led a minority Labour government. “We’ve had 146 debates at Prime Minister’s Questions. I think people have seen a lot of those to get the measure of us,” he said. “But the key thing people saw last night is an exemplification of the facts at this election. Fact one is that Labour are facing a wipeout in Scotland. Fact two is the Liberal Democrats all over the country are facing a wipeout. “Labour cannot win a majority on its own. It can only get into Downing Street with the support of the SNP. What is it the SNP want? They want more taxes, they want more borrowing, they want unlimited welfare. They want all of the things that got us into this economic mess in the first place, from which we are now recovering. “These facts lead to a simple conclusion: there is only one way to stop this Ed Miliband-SNP government from taking place and that is to have a Conservative majority government.” Nick Clegg said he would like to have been included in the debate, but as he was not allowed to take part, said he had not watched it and had gone to a pub in his Sheffield Hallam constituency. “I would have liked to have been there. David Cameron did not want to participate but, just because he did not want to speak up for what we have done in the last five years, I would have liked to have had the opportunity to have done so,” he said. “What was lacking in that debate was a sensible, centre-ground voice spelling out some of the realities of what we face as a country and setting out a hopeful vision of how we finish the job of balancing the books and finish it fairly.” The Independent has got together with May2015.com to produce a poll of polls that produces the most up-to-date data in as close to real time as is possible. Click the buttons below to explore how the main parties' fortunes have changed: All data, polls and graphics are courtesy of May2015.com. Click through for daily analysis, in-depth features and all the data you need. (All historical data used is provided by UK Polling Report) |