Labour has accused the Conservatives of plotting a “poisonous” deal with Ukip after the leaders’ TV debate showed no clear winner from any party.
The inconclusiveness of the contest has led to increased expectations that neither Labour nor the Conservatives will be able to govern alone.
The Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, and SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, appeared to outperform expectations, gaining more backing in the polls than the current overall level of support for their parties. As a result, Labour and the Conservatives spent much of Thursday night and Friday morning trying to dismiss the need for an alliance with their smaller rivals.
Michael Gove, the Tory chief whip, said “nein danke” to the idea of an alliance with Ukip, while Labour’s Caroline Flint said there would be no coalition with the SNP. However, neither are ruling out the prospect of loose pacts, while trying to warn of a heightened risk that their opponents will get together.
In an attempt to highlight the threat of a Tory-Ukip deal, the shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, wrote an open letter to the prime minister challenging him to “come clean” over plans for a pact with Farage. He said this would spell the end of the NHS.
“During last night’s debate you proved that you cannot defend your record, which is why you cannot win a majority. It is now clear that you are preparing to do a deal with Ukip,” he wrote. “We know the terms of such a deal. Nigel Farage has said he would work with you in exchange for a full and fair referendum to be held in 2015. You have said you would be delighted to offer this. But the real terms of a deal would see the end of the NHS as we know it.”
Burnham added: “Your deal with Ukip is a poisonous proposition that would deny working people the care they rely on from a service they cherish.”
Although Ukip is unlikely to win many seats, Farage hopes to secure enough to hold David Cameron’s feet to the fire over the issue of a referendum and potentially entice more defectors in the next parliament.
He has said he could support a party willing to offer an early EU referendum on the right terms, with a favourable question and with no lowered voting age or EU migrants permitted to participate.
In the debate, the Ukip leader won a snap half-time ComRes poll and tied with Cameron and Ed Miliband in the Survation one, although he also proved the most divisive figure on rankings of who performed the best and worst. He triggered outrage after complaining about the treatment of foreigners with HIV by the NHS which was condemned by all the party leaders except for Cameron.
Farage’s remarks were defended on Friday by David Coburn, the Ukip MEP for Scotland, who recently sparked a row by referring to the Scottish government minister Humza Yousaf as Abu Hamza. He said Ukip had to be a bit more outspoken than other parties to attract attention.
“[Farage] is rather colourful, as am I, we perhaps have something in common in that regard. We have to be a little louder and a little more amusing or more clever in order to get our market share in the newspapers and also in the press, which tries to keep us out,” he told BBC Radio Scotland.
Meanwhile, Labour has been claiming that talk of a strong SNP performance would help put the Conservatives in power. Flint told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “Nicola Sturgeon is a good debater but at the end of this campaign it’s a choice about who’s going to be the next prime minister. If Scots don’t want David Cameron, they ought to think very carefully about voting for the SNP … if Nicola does well, it helps David Cameron get into No 10.”
Some of the party leaders have been on the campaign trail on Friday morning, trying to claim victory despite the lack of a clear outcome. Sturgeon was mobbed by supporters in Edinburgh, where she laughed off suggestions that the SNP should capitalise on her strong showing in the TV debate by fielding candidates south of the border.
Cameron and his wife Samantha visited a first-time homebuyer and said he was “delighted” with last night’s debate,.
“My impression of the debate is very much that there is one person, one leader, one party that is offering the competence of a long-term plan that is working and then there is a kind of coalition of chaos out there that wants more debt, spending and taxes,” he said. “I was delighted with the debate. I am glad the poll of polls has got me coming out on top, but to me the real abiding impression was that I have a long-term plan that is working.”
Launching a poster in the Manchester constituency of Hazel Grove, the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, said: “I certainly hope on my part that I was able to get the message across for the Liberal Democrats.”
Miliband does not appear to have spoken about his performance yet as he took his family on a visit to Liverpool.
But Sturgeon, campaigning in Edinburgh, told Sky News that Labour was wrong to say a strong SNP performance would benefit the Conservatives. “A matter of simple arithmetic says if the SNP and Labour combined have more seats than the Tories we lock the Tories out of government,” she said.
“If the SNP’s a big force in Westminster we can make sure that a Labour government doesn’t sell out on its values in the way that the last Labour government did. We can make sure that we keep them honest and make sure they deliver real change for people.”
