Cameron: No 'stitch-up' to enter No 10
Saturday, 24 April 2010 12:00 AM
By politics.co.uk staff
David Cameron has pledged to ensure that 'unelected' prime ministers would have to call a general election within six months of entering Downing Street.
He said a Conservative government would make a law to force any MP who entered No 10 but who hadn't been party leader at a general election to hold a new poll within six months.
Both Gordon Brown and John Major in recent years took the top job without having been leader at the previous election.
Speaking at a Conservative rally in Grays, Essex, a tieless Mr Cameron said: "You should hold office because the people have voted for you, not because your party has stitched up some kind of deal.
"In a hung parliament we might end up with a prime minister who wasn't even involved in these TV debates. Is that change? Is that democracy? Is that progress? Of course it isn't."
Again returning to his theme that a hung parliament would not solve the economy, or crime or other issues, Mr Cameron said that there would be "bickering" and "horse-trading" if the election led to a coalition or minority government.
He asked: "Will we get real change from another five years of Gordon Brown? Will we get real change, change you can count on, from a hung parliament?"
His invited audience, many wearing Conservative T-shirts in the spring sunshine, chorused: "No!"
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