http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ele...iness-kingmaker-Nick-Clegg-tells-suitors.html
General Election 2010: Let's talk business, kingmaker Nick Clegg tells suitors
Despite the Liberal Democrats’ disastrous showing in the election, Nick Clegg now assumes the role of kingmaker.
By Martin Beckford
Published: 8:30AM BST 08 May 2010
Let's talk business, kingmaker Clegg tells his suitors
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg speaks to the press outside his HQ in London Photo: PHOTOSHOT
The make-up of the next government could be decided at a meeting between the party leader and his dwindling band of MPs.
The 57 surviving Lib Dem MPs will gather in Westminster to choose whether to support Labour or the Conservatives in Parliament, having received overtures from both parties after the polls ended in stalemate.
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Paradoxically, Mr Clegg became the most important figure in the quest for power, despite his party’s poor performance in the election.
With the race going down to the wire, the Lib Dems were courted by both of their main rivals.
It seemed unlikely that the third party would be asked to enter into a formal coalition with a rival, which could have seen key figures such as Vince Cable, their respected economic spokesman, handed Cabinet positions.
Gordon Brown said in a statement outside Downing Street yesterday that he believed discussions on a “fairer voting system” were “essential” - a concession to the Lib Dems’ primary objective of securing proportional representation in future elections.
The Labour leader promised immediate legislation that would lead to a referendum on electoral reform.
By then Mr Clegg had already delivered his own verdict on the election result outside his party’s Cowley Street headquarters in Westminster.
“It seems this morning that it’s the Conservative Party that had more votes and more seats but not an absolute majority,” he said.
“And that is why I think it is now for the Conservative Party to prove that it is capable of seeking to govern in the national interest.”
In the early afternoon, Mr Cameron responded in a televised address in which he too sought to woo Mr Clegg with a pledge to look at how Britain’s voting system could be made fairer.
The Tory leader suggested the establishment of an all-party committee of inquiry on political and electoral reform, as he set out what he described as a “big, open and comprehensive” offer.
However, while stressing that the two parties did share some policy goals, Mr Cameron sought to calm the nerves of traditional Tories.
He insisted that certain “red lines” would not be crossed, such as the power of the European Union, immigration and defence.
The two leaders were due to begin discussing options for co-operation by telephone yesterday evening.
However, the limited concessions offered by Mr Cameron were greeted with scorn by some prominent Lib Dems, including the party’s former leader, Sir Menzies Campbell.
Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman who is close to the negotiating team, said: “An inquiry into the voting system was offered by Ted Heath to Jeremy Thorpe in 1974.
“But we don’t need an inquiry to tell us that the voting system is corrupt, and that a third of the voters were robbed blind on Thursday.”
Mr Brown’s proposals were also described as “desperate”, in a sign that the Lib Dems may hold out for better offers from both parties.
One insider compared the Prime Minister’s refusal to leave Downing Street to Baroness Thatcher’s unwillingness to resign on the grounds that the first Gulf War was under way.
