Ken Clarke says chances of Tory victory are 'slim'

May 5 2010 by The Journal

SHADOW business secretary Ken Clarke has admitted that the chances of securing an outright Conservative victory on Thursday were "slim".

In an interview with the political website politics.co.uk, Mr Clarke said his “hunch” was that the Tories would get a majority.

But he acknowledged opinion polls, pointing towards a hung Parliament, could not be ignored and warned this could lead to much post-election inter-party “squabbling”.

On the campaign trail in Bedford, Mr Clarke said: “I think there’s still a slim chance we can get an overall majority, which I would very much like to see.

“It is very difficult to read because the electoral geography is quite local and it is a complicated breakdown of voting which is taking place – but my hunch is we’re still in with a chance of getting a parliamentary majority.”

Mr Clarke said yesterday of a possible hung Parliament: “What we’re plainly headed for would be a great deal of squabbling, with small parties given disproportionate influence, trying to manoeuvre advantages for themselves before they allow a Conservative government to get on with the job.

“To sit and listen to a Conservative would-be government trying to negotiate with the Scots about how much less the public spending cuts are going to be north of the border, or with the Liberals about various tedious kinds of electoral reform would, I think, be very tedious.”

THERE was anger among the Liberal Democrats yesterday after a group of senior figures questioned the party's commitment to national security in a letter to The Times.

Former chief of the defence staff General Lord Guthrie, ex-MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove and former counter-terrorism boss Peter Clarke warned its policies on nuclear weapons and Afghanistan put them outside the cross-party consensus and represented “a gamble”.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg dismissed their intervention insisting he cared passionately about national security.

“I am not going to take lectures from a bunch of retired establishment figures about the security of this country,” he said.