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| Britain |
| Britain on hold as coalition talks continue |
| 2010-05-10 |
| Nick Clegg is making David Cameron sweat as the pair edge towards a deal that would put the Conservative leader in Downing Street. Both sides will resume talks today. Their negotiating teams spent nearly six hours at the Cabinet Office yesterday, trying to thrash out an agreement, but Liberal Democrat sources suggested that it might be Thursday before Mr Cameron could think about walking into No 10. William Hague, who led the talks for the Tories, and Danny Alexander, his Lib Dem counterpart, tried to reassure the markets by announcing that cutting the deficit would be at the heart of any agreed programme for government. There were no details about how such a programme would look. Tory sources suggested that a deal — short of full coalition but with agreement on a range of legislation — was within reach today. Liberal Democrats, however, described this as “optimistic'. A senior source said: “It's more important to get this right than to be hasty. But we need to reach a deal before the public turns against the process.' Yesterday afternoon Mr Clegg increased the pressure on Mr Cameron by sitting down for 70 minutes in the Foreign Office with Gordon Brown. The Prime Minister, who had said previously that his rivals should take as much time as they needed to try to find agreement, offered the Lib Dems a full referendum on proportional representation. He reminded Mr Clegg that the overlap between their parties was much greater than that between the Lib Dems and the Tories. But Mr Clegg did not appear to bite. Later he sat down with Mr Cameron on “neutral territory' in Portcullis House, the MPs' office block, for their first face-to-face talks of the day. Both leaders came under pressure from party members over voting reform, the key Lib Dem issue. Senior Tories warned Mr Cameron to steer clear of it or risk a mutiny. Lib Dems warned Mr Clegg that he would break the party if he helped the Tory leader into power. Mr Cameron spent much of the afternoon holding an “open office' to try to calm alarm at what he might give away in negotiations. He will address his MPs today. |
| Posted by:lotp |