Tuesday 11 May 2010

Election 2010: Cameron becomes PM in coalition with Lib Dems

2010 ELECTION RESULT
29.0% LAB 258 (-91)
36.1% CON 306 (+97)
23.0% LD 57 (-5)
11.9% OTH 28 (-1)
CON-LD majority of 74.
After 649 seats declared. One seat, Thirsk and Malton, will declare on 17th May after the death of a candidate. It is expected to be a safe Tory seat, increasing the majority to 76.


DAVID CAMERON has become the first Conservative Prime Minister for 13 years after joining in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats to secure a majority in the House of Commons.

Mr Cameron left for Buckingham Palace at 8pm this evening where the Queen invited him to form a government.

Less than an hour earlier, outgoing PM Gordon Brown also visited the Palace where he resigned after a premiership of less than three years.

Yesterday, Mr Brown had made an audacious attempt to keep Labour in power by resigning as Labour leader to encourage talks of a coalition between his party and the Lib Dems.

But the arithmetic still worked against Labour and the Lib Dems as the two parties combined still did not have enough seats for a majority.

Meanwhile, a wider, so-called 'rainbow' coalition which also involved the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists was never seen as a viable alternative.

That so much became clear today when a Labour minister, Diana Johnson for Schools, was the first to suggest that a Labour-led coalition was in no position to form a stable government.

There had already been dissenting voices in the Labour ranks from former ministers David Blunkett and Michael Meacher, and backbenchers such as Diane Abbott and Tom Watson.

Unsurprisingly, the Labour-Lib Dems talks collapsed shortly afterwards, and almost five days after the election, the picture had finally become clear.

It was now up to the Tories and the Lib Dems to finish their negotiations and form a government.

That is something which they have done this evening and, while details are still emerging even as late as 11.30pm tonight, it would seem from first glance that the Lib Dems have done well from the talks.

Lib Dems leader Nick Clegg will be Deputy Prime Minister and four other Lib Dems will be in the Cabinet. Up to 20 Lib Dems MPs could be involved in the new government.

This is a major breakthrough for a party which has not been in such power for almost 80 years when a Lab-Lib coalition operated between 1929 and 1931.

On policy, the Lib Dems seem to have made significant progress in developing a fairer tax system.

The Tories have adopted their plans to increase the personal allowance while shelving the inheritance tax cut which would benefit just a small proportion of wealthy property owners.

Mr Cameron has also committed his party to a referendum on a form of proportional representation, the Alternative Vote (AV) system.

At the same time, Mr Cameron has placed his own close allies in prime positions with George Osborne as the new Chancellor and William Hague as Foreign Secretary.

But, while matters look rosy enough tonight, it is not easy to forget that this will be, at times, an uneasy alliance.

The two parties hold completely opposite views on issues such as Europe and immigration, and there remains a likelihood that this coalition may not last too long.

If that is the case, and there is another election, Labour must be in a position to offer a credible alternative having spent the intervening period as a strong, dignified opposition.

After all, the next Labour leader - whether it is David Miliband, Ed Balls, Alan Johnson or someone else - could very well benefit from the collapse of the coalition.

Disaffected Lib Dem voters, unhappy at the way things with the Tories worked out, are likely to switch back to Labour in seats such as Redcar, Burnley and Bradford East.

A loss of support in the North is a big risk for the Lib Dems to take but Mr Clegg has been a brave man throughout the last week and he shows no signs of stopping now.

Meanwhile, Mr Cameron's newly-appointed position completes a truly meteoric rise in British politics and, at 43, he becomes the youngest PM for almost 200 years.

He was only elected into the House of Commons as MP for Witney in Oxfordshire nine years ago at the 2001 general election.

He then became the Tories' fourth leader in just over four years in December 2005 after beating favourite David Davis in the final ballot of the leadership election.

And, once Mr Brown's brief honeymoon period as PM ended, Mr Cameron had consistent double-figure poll leads in the run-up to the election campaign.

But, during the campaign, it was a different story. The polls tightened as the Lib Dems enjoyed a bounce and policy from all three parties was scrutinised in the television debates.

On election night, a hung parliament became inevitable with the Tories shown repeatedly to be unable to win enough votes in several key seats for a majority.

Mr Cameron was kept on tenterhooks as delicate talks between the Lib Dems and his team stretched beyond the weekend.

He may have had some doubts over whether he was ever going to make it as PM when the Lib Dems also confirmed talks with Labour had taken place.

But, those talks collapsed, and Mr Cameron was able to take residence at Number 10 Downing Street.

Now, after an exhausting few days, the real hard work begins for Mr Cameron - and, of course, for Mr Clegg.

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ELECTION 2010 on TheIntrepidReporter
10.05.10 PM Brown steps down to unlock door to Lib-Lab-led coalition
07.05.10 Clegg tempted by coalition with Tories
06.05.10 General Election 2010 - The Full Results
28.04.10 Brown in bother over two-faced "bigot" slur
22.04.10 Clegg comes under attack from Tory press
16.04.10 Clegg claims honours in historic first debate
06.04.10 Gordon goes to the polls
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