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Hung parliament would put £ at risk, says Clarke
The Mole: All hell breaks loose as Ken oversteps the mark and ‘talks down’ the UK economy
Ken Clarke has pressed the political nuclear button by saying that a hung Parliament will result in a run on the pound and the risk that the IMF could have to be called in a la Denis Healey episode in 1976.
Clarke's 'honesty' will be seen as the first major gaffe of the election campaign. But George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor, backed him. Rather than retreat from the warning, Osborne insisted at a rare Tory election press conference that it underlined the seriousness of the choice facing the electorate on May 6.
Clarke, the shadow Business Secretary, said: "Bond markets won't wait. Sterling will wobble. We have seen even minor flickers in the opinion polls causing problems with interest rates in the recent past.
"If the British don't decide to put in a government with a working majority, and the markets think that we can't tackle our debt and deficit problems, then the IMF will have to do it for us."
It immediately laid Clarke open to Labour accusations that he is "talking down the economy". Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, is planning to give George Osborne a roasting over it in the BBC Daily Politics three-way debate this afternoon. Darling thinks it is the first big gaffe the Tories have made.
Underlying Clarke's remarks is absolute antipathy in David Cameron's camp to horse-trading with the Liberal Democrats to take power in a hung Parliament. Clarke - who is one of the few big beasts who could work with the Lib Dems - is personally opposed to a change in the electoral system to secure Lib Dem support for a minority Cameron government.
Osborne cracked a joke that the tensions in the Labour Party over Brown's failure to excite the public could yet lead to attempts to dump him, which Osborne described as the 'Michael Foot moment'. (This refers to the 1983 general election when the Labour camp was shell-shocked by Foot's failure to make ground against Margaret Thatcher. A Labour suit - Jim Mortimer, the party general secretary - announced to astonished hacks at a morning press conference that the Labour NEC had had a meeting and Michael was still the leader.)
Gordon Brown in today's Independent is making overtures to Clegg with pledges of his devotion to proportional reform. But Clegg is playing a canny game. Having rubbished Brown's deathbed conversion to electoral reform in the Daily Telegraph today - calling Brown a "desperate politician" who cannot be trusted - he is raising the stakes ahead of any Lib-Lab pact negotiations. Rather than accept the AV system currently on offer from Brown, Clegg could argue for full proportional representation, as per his party's manifesto.
Both Brown and Cameron - despite the Tory protestations - know that unless there is a remarkable change in the opinion polls, they will have to approach Clegg as suitors for a marriage. Ken Clarke may have warned the voters off supporting a shot-gun wedding. But the Cameron camp must know that he will have to walk down the aisle with Camo if that is what the voters want, whether he has to call in the IMF or not. ·
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If I were Cameron the first thing I would do on getting to Downing Street would be to call in the IMF. That would:
1. Make it look like Labour's fault, which it is
2. Make the unpopular measures which need to be imposed look like the IMF's fault and
3. Impose the necessary disciplines to reassure the bond markets and stabilise the pound, which had been in freefall ever since Brown's incompetence was rumbled
Best thing for the country. Clark knows what he is talking about.
I am surprised that Mr Clarke should commit this act of treachery against the public interest. Until this moment of madness he was the only senior Tory with an ounce of gravitas, perhaps he really believes it or perhaps the cigars are finally taking their toll on his aging frame, in any case he should put his country first.
Mr Mole - your just repeating Labour spin again. What about some insight or a separate perspective ! Come on you can do it ....
Lets see now - Labour say its a Gaffe as that's the news story they want. The Lib Dems say rubbish - because its the killer argument against a hung parliament, and the Tories say it as it forces the public to sober up from Ceggmania.
Now that wasn't too hard was it ?