Blair is running scared of the Liberal Democrats

1.01.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 29th Apr 2005

Blair is running scared of the Liberal Democrats

Tony Blair is claiming votes for the Lib Dems could hand victory to the Tories. The Prime Minister said it would only take one in 10 people who voted Labour in 2001 to "drift" to the Liberal Democrats to put the Tories in government. He has also said if just one in 50 Labour voters switched to the Lib Dems or abstained in the top 75 marginals, Mr Howard would become Prime Minister.

Charles Kennedy said "There is no chance whatsoever of the Conservatives getting in by the back, the side or any other door because they have lost this election and people know they have lost this election. What Labour are worried about is as we have seen with by-elections in this parliament, even if we were in third place, never mind challenging for second place, is if people vote Liberal Democrat they can elect Liberal Democrats, and I think that is what millions of people want to do."

Mr. Kennedy further said "After eight years in power with three figure majorities, quite a benign economic backdrop, is the best you can turn round to the country and say is 'oh, you must not vote for the Liberal Democrats for fear of something worse' that just shows what thin ice Tony Blair is skating on."

The Liberal Democrats today unveiled a poster claiming if everyone thinking of voting for them did so they would take 39% of the vote and end up with more than 200 seats.