Candidate Predicts Lab/Con Pact after GE

9.20.24am GMT Mon 8th Feb 2010

The President of the South Central Region of the Liberal Democrats, David Rendel, gave a rousing closing speech at their Spring Conference, held this year in Park House School, Newbury on Saturday.

Mr Rendel, who is also the Parliamentary Candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the Newbury constituency, entitled his speech "The Result of the General Election". The audience was surprised to hear that Mr Rendel believes that he already knows that the General Election will result in a balanced Parliament, with no party winning an overall majority.

"Of course we will be fighting to win an overall majority ourselves", said Mr Rendel. "But I have been saying since the day after the last General Election that the next parliament is almost certain to be balanced. The question which everyone will be asking is who will then form the government.

"The most likely coalition," he continued, "is a pact between the Labour and Conservative parties. They are much closer to each other in their policies than either of them is to us.

"They agreed on going to war in Iraq and on the possibility of invading Iran. They agreed on deregulating the banks, which was the main reason for the current financial crisis. They agree on imposing tuition fees on university students. They both tried to stop MPs expenses being made public. They both oppose a fair, proportional system of voting. Neither of them supports the Liberal Democrat policy of raising the threshold for Income Tax to £10,000. The list goes on and on."