PM's presidential style under assault

Thursday, 25 September 2003 6:11 AM

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy today will seek to capture the hearts and minds of disillusioned Labour and Tory voters in his keynote speech to his party's annual conference in Brighton.

He will launch an assault on Iain Duncan Smith's Tory leadership, lambasting the Conservatives as mere "charlatans and chancers."

On Iraq, Mr Kennedy will accuse the "small clique" of aides around Tony Blair of misleading the public on the dangers posed by Saddam Hussein's fallen war.

Mr Kennedy has clearly enjoyed the publicity from the party conference whose spirits were lifted after last week's Brent East by-election victory.

As he gears up for his speech today, he is fully aware that his party enjoys its best poll ratings for 14 years.

Mr Kennedy will centre his onslaught on Mr Blair's presidential style of government and Labour "shop-soiled government" which has foregone collective cabinet responsibility and trampled on parliamentary accountability.

Mr Kennedy is expected to tell delegates: "This is supposed to be a parliamentary democracy, but what we have seen is a small clique driving us into a war, disregarding widespread public doubts. That is not acceptable.

"I tell you this, if the British House of Commons had known then what it knows now about the events leading up to that fateful parliamentary debate and vote on committing our forces to war in Iraq, then the outcome could and should have been fundamentally different.

"But, of course, Parliament didn't know those things, because the Government - on such a critical issue - can still shroud itself in secrecy, and Tony Blair's presidential system of government can exclude the proper workings of what should be collective Cabinet government, held to account by the elected House of Commons

Last night, the Lib Dems ran a party political broadcast on TV exploiting the Brent East election win.

Mr Kennedy told viewers: "We won because we listened to voters concerns.

"We do not know all the answers, but on Iraq we have asked the right questions."

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