Clegg admits lack of an ‘Iraq factor’ could hold party back

Apr 26 2008 by Tomos Livingstone, Western Mail

THE lack of an “Iraq factor” could make it more difficult for the Lib- Dems to repeat the sweeping gains they made in the 2004 council elections, party leader Nick Clegg admitted last night.

Four years ago the Liberal Democrats took a swathe of council seats from Labour, with Cardiff, Swansea, Bridgend and Wrexham now boasting a Lib- Dem council leader.

The party is confident of holding off a Labour challenge in those areas when Wales goes to the polls again on Thursday, and hopes to make inroads in Newport too.

Mr Clegg said: “I’m not going to make statistical predictions. This is a tight and tough battle for us, I’m not going to disguise that.

“Most of the seats we are defending this time were won in 2004 at the height of the Iraq conflict, so I’m not complacent at all about these local elections.”

He added: “Big issues aren’t in the gift of opposition politicians, in as much as one wouldn’t have predicted a few years ago that Iraq would become a major issue.

“Who would have thought that a Labour Government would find itself on the ropes because it has abandoned the lowest paid?

“It beggars belief that they have abandoned their supporters.”

Lib-Dem-run councils in Wales had a good record, he said, taking over from long-running Labour administrations.

He said: “In Cardiff there are fiercely contested local elections, and we’re pleased, proud to be campaigning on our record.

“In Cardiff we have Europe’s largest recycling centre, we’ve kept council tax low. I’m delighted to be travelling around the country, actually pointing out the things we’ve done, not just said, to produce safer, greener communities.

“Voters are very keen to listen to our message.”

The Lib-Dem leader believes the row over the 10p tax band will make it harder for Labour to get its traditional supporters to back the party on Thursday.

He has written to all Labour MPs urging them not to be hoodwinked by “last-minute smoke and mirror promises” by the Prime Minister to compensate those who have missed out.

And Mr Clegg told the Western Mail the Government’s post office closure programme could also come back to haunt it at the ballot box.

Lib-Dem-run councils were being encouraged to reopen closed post offices, he said.

Roger Williams, the party’s Wales spokesman, said: “We should hold the councils we have at the moment, in the sense that we will be in a position to form a coalition around our group.

“The reaction on the doorstep is pretty good from our supporters – we’re finding that our supporters are sticking with us, whereas the Labour supporters show no enthusiasm at all.

“ It’s going to be another tough fight for them to get their vote out.”