“Pumped up” and “bloody lively”, insists Cameron

DAVID Cameron insisted he is “pumped up” and “bloody lively” as he tried to bring his party’s election campaign alive amid criticism that it has focused too strongly on negative tactics, including raising the fear of a Labour/SNP alliance.

Prime Minister David Cameron speaks to business leaders in the heart of the City of London financial district. Picture: Getty Images

A speech by the Prime Minister in central London last night came as a poll by Lord Ashcroft suggested his party might be on the brink of an outright majority victory with a six-point lead over Labour.

However, a Populus poll put Labour ahead by three per cent.

But with the Prime Minister saying he “is hungrier than ever”, Mr Cameron also tried to shake off the embarrassment of one of the 5,000 small businesses which signed a letter supporting the Tories withdrawing its name.

After Aurum Solutions withdrew from the letter, Mr Cameron said: “Even 4,999 is a huge number of businesses.

“I don’t think it is a stunt. In the end, an economy depends on the energy and the enterprise of small businesses.

“We need that to pay for the hospitals and the schools as well as to create the jobs.”

And in a speech to small business leaders which marked a distinctly more combative approach, the Prime Minister admitted that the Conservatives did not always wear their “passion on our sleeves”.

But, with his voice cracking at times and his face flushed, he said no-one should be in any doubt how much he wanted to win the election and head off the threat of an Ed Miliband government “propped up” by the SNP.

The appearance came after a similarly punchy address on Sunday, in which Mr Cameron suggested Labour’s message to voters should be stuck “where the sun don’t shine”.

Unveiling a small business manifesto in London, Mr Cameron cast the Conservatives as the party of “the small businesses, the entrepreneurs, the techies, the roof tilers, the retailers, the plumbers, the builders”