"The Lib Dem manifesto takes Lab-Libbery to a whole new level of intensity"

Last week Transport Secretary Lord Adonis highlighted his view that the Lib Dems and Labour should be natural allies.

Today he reaffirms this view in a further Guardian article:

"Everything that has happened since simply reinforces my argument, and makes ever more absurd the Lib Dem claim to be equidistant between Labour and the Conservatives. Issue by issue, during the first nine days of the campaign the Lib Dems have supported Labour against the Tories.

"They supported our NI rise and opposed David Cameron's £6bn of unspecified public service cuts for the coming year. They opposed, with us, the Tory married tax allowance and the likely Tory VAT increase to pay for projected spending plans. They supported our referendum on electoral reform and the removal of the hereditary peers from the Lords, which the Tories blocked in the parliamentary "wash-up". They opposed the Tory manifesto for the same reasons as Gordon Brown – that Britain needs a fair and open society, not a DIY society with the state leaving the vulnerable on their own."

He concludes that yesterday's Lib Dem manifesto "takes Lab-Libbery to a whole new level of intensity".

All of which the Conservative candidates fighting those crucial Lib Dem marginals should remind voters who want rid of the Brown Government: the only way to be sure of ousting Labour is to vote Conservative.

Jonathan Isaby