Clarke: Lib Dems ‘breathing down’ our necks
Conservative leadership contender Ken Clarke has warned that his party risks being replaced as the official opposition by the Liberal Democrats if it fails to win the next election.
The former chancellor said he thought a fourth election defeat would make the Conservatives “slightly irrelevant” to the governing of Britain.
“The Conservative party is in quite a critical state and the Liberal Democrats … are breathing down our necks,” he told BBC1’s Sunday AM.
“They will overtake us if we don’t make ourselves the principle and obvious alternative government at the next election.”
Mr Clarke added that the Liberal Democrat’s failure to take more ground at May’s general election should not make the Conservatives complacent and warned that his party had “got to put good distance” between themselves and Britain’s third party by the time of the next election.
He said the Conservatives had to define what a Tory government would do and offer a credible alternative to Labour.
“We have actually got to believe we are a credible alternative government that wants to be back in power and knows what we want to do when we get there,” said Mr Clarke.
Mr Clarke said he was not suggesting the Conservatives would only secure an election victory with him leading the party, but insisted that he would boost the Tory’s prospects.
He also stressed that he was the best man for the job despite the way his “substantial” record in government had been “parodied” by his opponents and the press.
Mr Clarke added that his campaign to succeed Michael Howard as Conservative leader remained on form, despite the “disappointment” of colleague David Willetts pulling out of the race this week to back his main rival David Davis.
