Cameron ends campaign saying election will 'define this generation'
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Version 0 of 1. David Cameron ended a marathon 36-hour eve-of-election tour across Britain by offering a promise and a warning to the British people as they go to the polls in an election he says “will define this generation”. The prime minister, who was sounding tired after a 12-stop tour across England, Wales and Scotland, promised to redouble “with a passion” the work of the last five years in delivering apprenticeships and helping the elderly. In a rallying cry in the Tory-held marginal seat of Carlisle, Cameron denied that the Tories were “demented accountants obsessed by numbers” as he said he was cutting the deficit to avoid burdening the next generation. But the prime minister qualified his positive vision with a warning of the danger to the UK posed by the threat of a post-election deal between Labour and the SNP. Speaking to Tory supporters from across the north-west of England in Carlisle, after a brief campaign stop in the Scottish Borders, Cameron said: “A government that was held to ransom vote by vote, measure by measure, budget by budget would bring this country to a juddering halt. Those are the consequences of a weak Ed Miliband government propped up by the SNP.” Related: General election 2015: Britain heading for hung parliament The prime minister issued his warning after Lord O’Donnell, the former cabinet secretary, reminded Cameron that he signed up to a special Whitehall document to say that the next prime minister would be the leader who commanded the confidence of MPs regardless of whether his party had won the election. The prime minister had earlier cast doubt on the legitimacy of a Labour government supported by the SNP by warning it would lack credibility. O’Donnell questioned the prime minister’s interpretation of the constitutional convention when he indicated that the leader of the largest party does not automatically become prime minister. The former cabinet secretary, who said he would take to the airwaves as soon as the polls closed on Thursday night to remind politicians of the guidelines laid down in the cabinet manual, told the Today programme that the key qualification to enter No 10 was the ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons. “We live in a parliamentary democracy,” he said. “The rules are very clear and they are laid out in the Cabinet Manual and that says the ability of government to command the confidence of the elected House of Commons is central to its authority to govern.” Cameron sought to balance his warnings about the SNP by setting out a positive vision for the next five years. He said: “The promise is this: if you have a Conservative government on Friday, if you have me as your prime minister on Friday, we will keep on growing the economy, we will keep on creating jobs, we will keep on investing in those apprenticeships, we will make sure we put more into childcare, we will go on building those homes, we will go on supporting our elderly. That is the promise I am making, that is the promise of continuing the work of the last five years but redoubling it with a passion in the next five years.” Related: Labour to fight any attempt by Cameron to declare victory without a majority The prime minister also sought to say there would be a moral dimension to a Tory government as he praised the member of the Question Time audience who chided him for failing to talk enough about this. “What I am about is public service, trying to do the right thing, trying to change people’s lives for the better. When I look at those [economic] figures I think of two million people who’ve got a job, who’ve got a chance. What is more of a moral choice than that? “We are not trying to cut the deficit because we are sort of demented accountants obsessed by numbers. We are doing it because we want to go home at night, look our children in the eye and say this generation did the right thing and did not leave an unsustainable debt for you to pay off because that is not the sort of people we are in this party and this country.” Cameron concluded his speech by saying that the election would have momentous consequences. “This is the election that will define this generation … Let’s build on what we have done, don’t go back to square one.” The prime minister returned to his Witney constituency as the Tories prepared for an offensive on the airwaves, led by Michael Gove, as soon as the polls close to claim a Labour government would lack credibility if it has to rely on the SNP. But O’Donnell made clear that he too would take to the airwaves to remind the prime minister he signed up to the cabinet manual. The former cabinet secretary said: “I’ll be in London at various studios trying to ensure that those interpretations that come out of the exit polls at one minute past 10 are actually in line with what’s in the cabinet manual, and people aren’t saying: ‘Oh well, I think I’ve got a chance because I got this number of seats or whatever’.” In a Guardian interview in March, the former cabinet secretary said that the polls at that time suggested “a Lab-Lib coalition with a deal with the SNP” looked like a feasible scenario. The polls once again suggest that the combined seats of the three parties would achieve a parliamentary majority. O’Donnell published a draft of the chapter of the cabinet manual on the formation of a coalition government in early 2010 because he expected voters to elect a hung parliament. The draft was endorsed by Gordon Brown as prime minister. The manual was fully published after the 2010 election with a foreword by Cameron on behalf of the coalition. This means the manual has the backing of the three main parties. Related: Lord O’Donnell: leader of largest party does not automatically become PM In his Guardian interview, O’Donnell said it was wrong to assume the leader of the largest party should automatically become prime minister. His remarks were then aimed at Nick Clegg who has always said that the Lib Dems would talk to the leader of the largest party in the first place in coalition negotiations. O’Donnell said: “The one thing we need to be aware of is people thinking that what Nick Clegg said last time constituted an iron law that only the biggest party, somehow defined either by seats or votes, gets to have the first say. That is not true.” Asked whether the prime minister is the person who can command the commons he replied: “Precisely.” The former cabinet secretary is unlikely to be taking such a high profile role on the airwaves without the agreement of Sir Jeremy Heywood, his successor as cabinet secretary. Britain could elect its most balanced parliament since 1923 when Ramsay MacDonald, the Labour leader, became prime minister with the arms-length support of Herbert Asquith’s Liberals, even though the Conservative leader, Stanley Baldwin, came first in terms of the number of seats. |