Lib Dem poll setback for Cameron

Published on Monday 28 December 2009 21:35

LIBERAL Democrats would prefer Gordon Brown to be Prime Minister over and above David Cameron, a poll by the party's activists has found.

An online survey by the Liberal Democrat Voice website asked readers who, of the two, they least wanted to be prime minister. Forty-two per cent said Mr Brown, while 58 per cent named the Tory leader as their least preferred PM.

The results will be a blow to Mr Cameron, who has mounted a charm offensive on the Liberal Democrats in case of a hung parliament at the general election.

He used his New Year message to say that the differences between his party and the Lib Dems had narrowed. He said: "Let's be honest, whether you're Labour, Conservative or Liberal Democrat, you're motivated by pretty much the same progressive aims: a country that is safer, fairer, greener and where opportunity is more equal.

"It's how to achieve these aims that we disagree about, and indeed between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats there is a lot less disagreement than there used to be."

Mr Cameron also used his message to call for the election campaign to be a "good clean fight".

From 4 January, he is planning a blitz of policy announcements, including a new committee to help get Britain out of recession. There is speculation that the Lib Dems' Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, could be asked to chair this if a deal was done with the Tories after the election.