Election TV Debate

TV Debate – Our view (Hargreaves Lansdown)

The Liberal Democrat’s Nick Clegg was the clear winner of the first live TV debate. The Lib Dems are in a very strong position in these debates – arguably they have nothing to lose since the likelihood of them winning the Election seems remote.

However, the Lib Dems may play an increasing role in policy making with a new Government. Certainly, “I agree with Nick” seemed to be Gordon Brown’s favourite and quite deliberate, quote of the night.

In a hung parliament, we would expect the Lib Dems to have a big say in policy decisions. Would the Lib Dems be able to negotiate substantial changes to the main party’s policies, such as stopping the Trident defence program, the introduction of proportional representation or even appoint the next Chancellor of the Exchequer? I don’t think so – not in the short term anyway.

However, in exchange for their support and parliamentary votes on issues such as spending cuts, health, immigration or crime, we could easily see influence or even implementation of some of their tax policies. So far they are the only party who have explicitly said how they will raise taxes to tackle our £167bn budget deficit.