Party leaders make history with TV clash
The leaders of the three main parties made history tonight as they crossed swords in the first ever televised prime ministerial General Election debate.
Nick Clegg started proceedings with an opening statement in which he promised that the Liberal Democrats would offer “something different”.
“Do not let anyone tell you that the only choice is the old politics,” he told the audience in Manchester.
“We can do something new, something different this time.”
Labour leader Gordon Brown stressed that his focus was on maintaining the economic recovery over the next year, urging voters to focus on that issue.
Mr Brown warned that getting the economic decisions wrong risked a ``double-dip'' recession.
He also pledged to protect the NHS, police and schools as the deficit was cut.
And he said: “I know what this job involves and I look forward to putting my plan to you this evening.”
Mr Cameron began by apologising for the expenses scandal, saying he hoped the debates would go some of the way to restoring the “faith and trust” in politics.
“We badly need that once again in our country,” he said.
“The expenses saga brought great shame on Parliament, and I’m extremely sorry for everything that happened.
“Your politicians – frankly, all of us – let you down.”
Mr Cameron also said there was a “big choice” at this election.
“We can go on as we are, or we can say ’No, Britain can do much better’.
“We can deal with our debts, we can get our economy growing and avoid this jobs tax, and we can build a bigger society.
“But we can only do this if we recognise we need to join together, we need to come together, we need to recognise we are all in this together.”
Mr Cameron said not everything Labour had done over the past 13 years had been wrong, and he would keep the good things.
“But we need change, and it’s that change that I want to help to lead,” he said.
“These are no ordinary times, and this is no ordinary election,” he added.
