Clegg will back strongest party in hung parliament.

Summary: The Liberal Democrats would support whichever party had the most seats if there was a hung parliament, Nick Clegg has indicated.

The Liberal Democrats would support whichever party had the most seats if there was a hung parliament, Nick Clegg has indicated.

The party leader said it was inevitable that whoever received the "strongest mandate" from the electorate had the "first right" to seek to govern.

Mr Clegg said it was a "really good thing" that the latest Ipsos Mori poll suggested the upcoming general election was not a "shoe-in".

The poll for The Observer newspaper has put the Conservative Party on 37 per cent - just six points ahead of Labour. The gap is the narrowest between the two for nearly a year, and with the Liberal Democrats on 17 per cent would result in a hung parliament if repeated at the General Election.

Asked about his approach to a hung parliament he said: "The votes of the British people are what should determine what happens afterwards. Whichever party have the strongest mandate from the British people, it seems to me obvious in a democracy they have the first right to seek to try and govern, either on their own or with others."

Meanwhile, Conservative leader David Cameron has said he plans to hold an emergency budget within 50 days if his party wins the next general election. Mr Cameron said, on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show, that it would be "about getting the deficit under control".

He added: "It should also be a budget that goes for growth that gets this economy moving again."

Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.

Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.

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