Nick Clegg nearly as popular as Winston Churchill
Clegg has surged to a higher approval rating than Tony Blair at the peak of new Labour?s popularity
NICK CLEGG, the Liberal Democrat leader who until a few days ago was little known to voters, is now the most popular party leader since Winston Churchill, a new Sunday Times poll reveals.
Following his decisive victory in last week’s television debate, Clegg has surged to a higher approval rating than Tony Blair at the peak of new Labour’s popularity.
Last night, as the YouGov survey showed that the three parties are almost neck and neck, Labour and the Tories desperately tried to respond to the Clegg phenomenon.
The general election has become a genuine three-way contest with the Lib Dems, on 29%, enjoying their strongest support in almost 30 years.
Clegg’s party is one point behind Labour on 30%, with the Tories on 33% having a slender lead of three points. The poll suggests David Cameron’s Tories are on course to secure 239 seats, only 46 more than they have now.
Labour, despite being second in terms of the popular vote, would get the most seats, with about 287 MPs, giving Gordon Brown a fighting chance of clinging on as prime minister.
The number of Lib Dem MPs would increase from 63 to 93, putting them in a strong position to dictate terms in a hung parliament.
Clegg himself has an almost unprecedented approval rating of 72%, ahead of Cameron on 19% and Brown on minus 18%.
Churchill had an 83% approval rating in 1945, just a few months before he lost the general election.
The Tories, who have been the biggest victims of the Clegg surge, last night sent out one of their big hitters to attack the Lib Dems’ policies and leadership. In an interview with The Sunday Times, William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, claimed that a vote for Clegg was a vote for the “European super-state”.
Cameron, on the campaign trail yesterday, begged voters not to snub the Tories. “A hung parliament would be a bunch of politicians haggling, not deciding,” he said.
Labour stepped up its charm offensive against Clegg with Peter Hain, the cabinet minister, saying the party was ready to do deals on controversial issues such as tax and nuclear weapons.
The strategy is designed to persuade Lib Dem supporters in Labour-Tory marginals to vote tactically for Labour.
By emphasising the similar agendas of the two parties, Labour also hopes to coax Lib Dem MPs into backing Brown in a future hung parliament.
The Lib Dems last night said they would resist the squeeze from the two main parties and revealed a surge in donations, with £120,000, mainly in small sums, coming in during the 24 hours after the debate.
There has also been an eight-fold increase in visits to the party’s website, with Lib Dem strategists plotting how to capitalise on the new interest in their leader.
Clegg, speaking yesterday on a visit to the London hospital where his third son was born recently, said: “A growing number of people are starting to hope that real change and real fairness is finally possible in Britain.”
Such a three-horse race is unprecedented in post-war British history. The last time all the parties were in such close contention in a general election campaign was in the 1920s.
Most snap polls rushed out after Thursday’s debate suggested that while Clegg was the victor, Cameron had come second ahead of Brown.
The Sunday Times Poll of 1,490 adults conducted over the past two days confirmed that Clegg had been the most “impressive” with 70% backing him. But Brown took second place with 12% and Cameron, who had been considered the favourite to win the debate, trailed in third with just 10% support.
With the Tories rattled, Hague made an outspoken attack on Clegg, claiming that the former EU official and MEP was ready to “sign up for anything that has ever been on offer or proposed from the European Union”.
“It is their policy to join the euro,” Hague added. “That is completely out of step with the majority of people in the country.” He also appealed for voters to switch back to the Conservatives, claiming a hung parliament would lead to an unpopular second general election.
The Sunday Times poll suggests Hague’s appeal may fall on deaf ears. With many people unexcited by the two main parties, a total of 53% say that a hung parliament with the Lib Dems holding the balance of power would be a “good thing”.
Labour cabinet ministers last night responded to the growing popularity of the Lib Dems by offering concessions to the party’s sympathisers.
In remarks that will irritate tribal Labour members, Hain, the Welsh secretary, announced that the party should be ready to negotiate with the Lib Dems, not just on constitutional reform but also on tax and Trident.
The Lib Dems are proposing that anyone earning £10,000 or less a year should no longer pay income tax and that our submarine-based deterrent should be scrapped in favour of a cheaper system.
However, Hain, in an interview with The Sunday Times, said there was “common ground” even on these issues where traditionally the two parties have been at war.
“Their particular policies on tax do not add up at the present time,” said Hain. “However, our ambition would be to lift the burden on the lowest paid and to do it over time when it is affordable, so there is a common agenda.”
He added: “We are absolutely firmly committed to a nuclear deterrent. Within that, time scales, affordability and all of that agenda, there is scope to negotiate.”
Hain called on Clegg to set aside his personal hostility towards Brown and to prepare to work with Labour after the election. “Personal chemistry should not get in the way of the national interest,” he said.
Professor Colin Rallings of Plymouth University, the elections expert, said the Lib Dem surge was putting serious pressure on the Tories.
“At this level of distribution of votes there is no situation where Lib Dem strength benefits the Tories. They would need to be topping 40% before they would benefit from the Lib Dem resurgence,” he said.
“You have to go back to elections in the 1920s when the Liberals were split and Labour was on its way back to have this sort of three-way contest in a British general election.”
In the past week the Lib Dems have risen by 11 points from 18%, the Tories have slipped by seven points from 40% and Labour has fallen by two points from 32%.
Other polls confirmed the Lib Dem bounce, with one by BPIX for The Mail on Sunday putting the party in the lead on 32%, ahead of the Tories on 31% and Labour on 28%. A ComRes poll for the Sunday Mirror put the Lib Dems on 29%, Labour on 27% and the Conservatives in the lead on 31%.
An ex-soldier publicly berated Cameron for failing to help him as the Tory leader staged a walkabout in his Oxfordshire constituency. The man told Cameron: “You gave me your card and said, ‘Give me a ring and I’ll help you out’.” But the veteran insisted that Cameron had failed to respond to 30 telephone calls.
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