Campaign steps up as Howard says Labour Government has ‘undermined core values’
Friday saw Conservative party leader Michael Howard attack the Labour Government for having ‘undermined’ core values, while Chancellor Gordon Brown went after the female vote, with a speech on Labour’s policies on women and the family.
Speaking in Watford, Michael Howard claimed pandering to ‘troublemakers’ was at the core of what is going wrong with Britain.
He also took the opportunity to outline his party’s tough stance on immigration, asylum and policing. He pointed out that only two out of ten people who claim asylum in Britain today are genuine refugees.
On policing, Mr Howard repeated his party’s proposals to recruit 5,000 more ‘real’ police a year and crack down on burdensome bureaucracy and form filling.
Meanwhile, Conservative party co-Chairman Dr Liam Fox and Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary David Willetts were hosting a conference outlining the party’s plans to increase the basic state pension.
In his speech in London targeting the female vote, Chancellor Gordon Brown championed education maintenance allowances, universal nursery education for three and four year olds, Sure Start, investment in schools and the child trust fund, as some of Labour’s key achievements.
If re-elected, Mr Brown promised a Sure Start in every community by 2010, an education leaving age of 18, the embedding of a “truly national childcare strategy” and expanding free nursery provision to 15 hours a week.
The Liberal Democrats, Green party and Labour were caught up in a row, after Friends of the Earth welcomed the Liberal Democrat’s election manifesto promises on the environment, claiming it rightly recognised the quality of the environment cannot be separated from other areas of policy.
Charles Kennedy, the Lib dem leader, criticised Tony Blair and Michael Howard for failing to take up the chance to sign up to a statement of both principle and action on the environment.
“On the environment, the Liberal Democrats are not just the real alternative – If you want to improve the environment we are the only choice”, he said.
Fraser Kemp, the Labour Party’s campaign spokesman, accused the Liberal Democrats of failing to back environmental policies at local level.
He highlighted the Lib Dems opposition to wind farms on the Isle of Skye and congestion charging in Edinburgh.
The day also saw a series of further manifesto launches from the SNP, UK Independence Party and the Welsh Liberal Democrats.
SNP leader Alex Salmond unveiled the Scottish National Party’s “People’s manifesto” in which it promises to “make Scotland matter” in Westminster.
His party’s pledges include an end to means testing, abolition of council tax, restoration of the earnings link and a rise in the basic state pension, funded by setting up a Scotland exclusive oil fund, along similar lines to the Norwegian model.
UKIP leader Roger Knapman launched his party’s manifesto in London, declaring ‘we want our country back.’ He claimed it to be in ‘the national interest’ that the public vote a UKIP MP to Westminster.
