Nick Clegg questioned by Lib Dems over Tory deal

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Labour fights on after debate blow

David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Gordon Brown shake hands after the TV debate

Labour has vowed to carry on fighting to polling day after Gordon Brown failed to make the party's hoped-for breakthrough in the final leaders' debate.

A clutch of instant polls following the last of three televised head-to-heads made David Cameron clear winner, with the Prime Minister again trailing in third place.

With just a week to go and Labour still behind in the overall opinion polls, the party had been hoping desperately that Mr Brown would put in a performance that would change the dynamics of the campaign.

Mr Cameron cautioned that the election was "far from won" for the Conservatives and said that he would spend the next six days concentrating on winning every vote.

Labour election co-ordinator Douglas Alexander also insisted that the result of the election remained "wide open", and said that Mr Brown would carry on fighting until the end.



"He is going to be campaigning the length and breadth of the country in the days ahead," he told Sky News. "We are going to be fighting from now until the election for every single vote. This election is wide open. Nobody has any certainty how this election will play itself out."

But Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Ed Davey said Labour was out of it and the contest now was between his party and the Conservatives. "This is turning into a two-horse race. Unexpectedly, it is between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives," he said

Mr Cameron said it was essential that the Tories did not let up in the final run-in to polling day. "I am just very focused on the next week because this is still an election where we have to fight for every vote and every seat," he told BBC Radio WM.

"I am going to be doing everything I can in these next six days to say to people if you want real change, if you want to wake up on Friday May 7 with a different government, with a new prime minister, taking the country in a new direction, then please vote Conservative because this election is still far from won."

The debate drew a peak audience of eight million viewers, according to overnight viewing figures.

British politics-Leaders square up for second debate-Questions over Lib Dem leader's funding before TV debate

Nick Clegg


David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg

The leaders of the three major parties will go head-to-head in the second live televised debate of the General Election campaign.

The debate in Bristol is expected to see Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg come under pressure from his two rivals, after his widely-praised performance in last week's broadcast gave his party a boost of up to 12 points in the polls, transforming the election into a real three-horse race.

Labour's Gordon Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron will seek to highlight Lib Dem policies on the Trident nuclear deterrent and the European Union, which they believe will prove unattractive to voters.






But in a 90-minute debate on Sky News focused on foreign affairs, Mr Clegg is likely to respond by reminding voters that his party opposed the Iraq War, which both Tories and Labour supported.

Domestic affairs and the economy are also certain to feature among the questions from the studio audience, on a day when crucial borrowing figures will indicate whether the Government is on track to meet its Budget forecasts.

Polls suggest that the "Clegg bounce" was still having an impact a week after last Thursday's debate, with Lib Dems continuing to pip Labour for second place. A ComRes survey for ITV and The Independent put Conservatives ahead on 35% to the Lib Dems' 27% and Labour's 25%, while a YouGov poll for The Sun had the Tories on 33%, Lib Dems 31% and Labour 27%.

There were signs of Tory-supporting newspapers putting the Lib Dem leader under intense scrutiny ahead of the debate.

The Daily Telegraph reported that regular payments from three Lib Dem donors were paid directly into Mr Clegg's private bank account before he became leader. A party spokesman said that the gifts went towards funding staff for his parliamentary office and were "properly made and declared".

Mr Cameron insisted he was "aiming for outright victory", but left open the door for co-operation with the Liberal Democrats if they held the balance of power.

"We are trying to win the election, we are trying to win outright," he said. "If it falls short of that we have to behave responsibly, make sure that we have a working government of this country and things get done."

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, was accused of irregular funding arrangements Thursday as party leaders geared up for the second pre-election TV debate.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that Clegg, whose strong showing in last week's first televised clash boosted his party's support, received a series of payments from party donors directly into his private bank account.

Three donors paid up to 250 pounds a month before he became party leader in 2007, said the rightwing daily.

The paper reported the payments were made by three businessmen, citing personal bank statements submitted in 2006 by Clegg to back up his expense claims.

A Liberal Democrat spokesman accepted the payments had been made but denied any impropriety.

"The donations were properly made and declared and were used to fund part of the salary of an additional member of Nick Clegg's parliamentary staff," said a party spokesman.

But the former head of a watchdog that monitors lawmakers' conduct told the Telegraph the arrangements appeared "irregular."

"Given that he's been very holier than thou about these things, it would seem he has some explaining to do to his party and the electorate," said Alistair Graham, ex-chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

"It would now make sense for someone independent to check these accounts."

Lawmakers are still struggling to repair their tarnished reputations after last year's expenses scandal, which revealed lawmakers had claimed public money to pay everything from adult films to tennis court repairs.

The centrist Liberal Democrats have traditionally been the third-largest party in politics, consistently lagging far behind the ruling Labour Party and the main opposition Conservatives in opinion polls.

But Clegg's strong performance in last week's first US-style televised pre-poll clash saw his party, which has never held power, surge into second, and sometimes first place in a series of polls.

He will be hoping to repeat the performance in the second debate Thursday, which focuses on foreign policy.

The image Microsoft doesn't want you to see: Too tired to stay awake, the Chinese workers earning just 34p an hour

Showing Chinese sweatshop workers slumped over their desks with exhaustion, it is an image that Microsoft won't want the world to see.

Employed for gruelling 15-hour shifts, in appalling conditions and 86f heat, many fall asleep on their stations during their meagre ten-minute breaks.



For as little as 34p an hour, the men and women work six or seven days a week, making computer mice and web cams for the American multinational computer company.
This photo and others like it were smuggled out of the KYE Systems factory at Dongguan, China, as part of a three-year investigation by the National Labour Committee, a human rights organisation which campaigns for workers across the globe.

The mostly female workers, aged 18 to 25, work from 7.45am to 10.55pm, sometimes with 1,000 workers crammed into one 105ft by 105ft room.

They are not allowed to talk or listen to music, are forced to eat substandard meals from the factory cafeterias, have no bathroom breaks during their shifts and must clean the toilets as discipline, according to the NLC.

The workers also sleep on site, in factory dormitories, with 14 workers to a room. They must buy their own mattresses and bedding, or else sleep on 28in-wide plywood boards. They 'shower' with a sponge and a bucket.

And many of the workers, because they are young women, are regularly sexually harassed, the NLC claimed.

The organisation said that one worker was even fined for losing his finger while operating a hole punch press.

Microsoft is not the only company to outsource manufacturing to KYE, but it accounts for about 30 per cent of the factory's work, the NLC said. Companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Foxconn, Acer, Logitech and Asus also use KYE Systems.

Microsoft, which exports much of the hardware made at the factory to America, Europe and Japan, said that it is taking the claims seriously and has begun an investigation.

One employee told the NLC: 'We are like prisoners. It seems like we live only to work - we do not work to live. We do not live a life, only work.'

The NLC's report included an account from one worker whose job consisted entirely of sticking selfadhesive rubber feet to the bottom of Microsoft computer mice.

But the monotony of sitting or standing for 12 hours, applying foot after foot to mouse after mouse, was not the worst of the worker's testimony.

It was the militaristic management and sleep deprivation that affected the worker most. 'I know I can choose not to work overtime, but if I don't work overtime then I am stuck with only 770 Chinese yuan (£72.77p) per month in basic wages,' the worker said.

'This is not nearly enough to support a family. My parents are farmers without jobs. They also do not have pensions.

'I also need to worry about getting married, which requires a lot of money. Therefore, I still push myself to continue working in spite of my exhaustion.

'When I finish my four hours of overtime, I'm extremely tired. At that time, even if someone offered me an extravagant dinner, I'd probably refuse. I just want to sleep.'

Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the NLC, said: 'It sounded like torture - the frantic pace on the assembly line, same motion over and over for the 12 hours or more of work they did.'

Microsoft said it was committed to the 'fair treatment and safety of workers'. A spokesman added: 'We are aware of the NLC report and we have commenced an investigation.

'We take these claims seriously and we will take appropriate remedial measures in regard to any findings of misconduct.'

Minister admits Islamic extremists who believe in jihad and sharia law have infiltrated the Labour Party

Concern: Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said the Islamic Forum of Europe was acting like a party within Labour

Unpopular: Artist impression of the hijab-inspired arch Tower Hamlets council has proposed be built at either end of Brick Lane

 

 

 Extremist group: The IFE supports jihad - such as acts carried out by Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi (pictured) who killed seven CIA operatives

The Labour Party has been inflitrated by Islamic fundamentalists, a Government Minister admitted today.

Members of the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) which believes in Britain should develop sharia law have placed sympathisers in elected office and local branches of parties, an investigation revealed.

The covert campaign is part of an attempt at 'mass mobilisation' of voters by the group, which believes in jihad.

Jim Fitzpatrick, the Environment Minister, told the Sunday Telegraph the IFE had become a secret party within Labour.

He said: 'They are acting almost as an entryist organisation, placing people within the political parties, recruiting members to those political parties, trying to get individuals selected and elected so they can exercise political influence and power, whether it’s at local government level or national level.'

'They are completely at odds with Labour’s programme, with our support for secularism.'

Mr Fitzpatrick, the MP for Poplar and Canning Town, said the IFE had infiltrated and 'corrupted' his party in east London in the same way that the far-Left Militant Tendency did in the 1980s.

Leaked Labour lists show a 110 per cent rise in party membership in one constituency in two years.

A six-month investigation into the IFE and its political activities revealed it had 'consolidated' its influence at the London borough council of Tower Hamlets, which has a budget estimated at£1bn.

Other recordings by undercover reporters include leaders of the group saying they opposed democracy and supported sharia law.

The investigation revealed the group had received £10m in taxpayer cash from government funds designed to 'prevent violent extremism'.

It also uncovered evidence that moderate Muslims were being targeted by group leaders who resent their 'un-Islamic' behaviour.

Lutfur Rahman, leader of Labour-run Tower Hamlets Council, obtained his post with the group's help.

Referring to IFE activists, he said: 'There are various people across Tower Hamlets who get excited, who get involved.'
He would not comment on concerns about infiltration, saying they were 'party matters'.

He said: 'If you look at our flagship policies, like investing £20 million to tackle overcrowding, you can see that we are working for everyone.'

The IFE said it did not seek to influence the council and had not lobbied for Mr Rahman.

'If anything, existing members of the Labour Party have joined the IFE, rather than the other way round,' it said.

The group insisted it was not a fundamentalist or extremist organisation and did not support violence.

Labour today promised to investigate the allegations and said the local party in Tower Hamlets was already in 'special measures'.

This means the selection of candidates has been taken over by the regional party in London.
'The London Regional Labour Party has placed Tower Hamlets Labour Party in special measures following complaints of membership abuse and its administration, including the selection of council candidates, has been taken out of the hands of the local party,' the party said in a statement.

'This is now run by the London Regional Labour Party and we will investigate any further evidence which is raised by this programme.

'The Labour Party will take firm action and do whatever is necessary to ensure that everyone who joins the party does so as an individual and supports Labour's aims and values.'

Tower Hamlets Council recently courted controversy by proposing to build 'hijab'-shaped arches at either end of London's Brick Lane as part of a cultural tour.

Residents said the £1.85m scheme was culturally-insensitive and a waste of money.

Margaret Thatcher returns to 10 Downing Street for the official unveiling of her new portrait -But reported banned inside scare bad publicity

Baroness Thatcher poses on the steps of 10 Downing Street with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah, before Mr Brown helped Lady Thatcher safely down the steps

Lady Thatcher poses next to Richard Stone's portrait but said she couldn't decide if it was 'good or bad',but she said 'I like it'

She might have preferred to be shaking the hand of a new Conservative prime minister.

But Baroness Thatcher had to make do with Gordon Brown yesterday as she visited Downing Street for the unveiling of her portrait.

The Prime Minister and his wife Sarah were happy to pose with the former Tory leader outside No 10.

But once inside, cameras were banned from the ceremony to unveil the portrait by Royal artist Richard Stone.

A formal picture of Lady Thatcher was later released alongside the painting.

Some speculated that Mr Brown feared images of him paying homage to the Iron Lady would go down badly with certain Labour MPs.

A spokesman for Lady Thatcher said of the media ban: 'It was always a question for No 10. Lady Thatcher was very relaxed about it.

'But it was always their call.'

The former prime minister is believed to be the first living politician to have her portrait hung in the official residence.

Although photos of all modern prime ministers line the main staircase, only two 20th century premiers have paintings on display: David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill.

The portrait, which depicts her just after the Falklands War in 1982, will go on permanent display in the stateroom's lobby on the first floor.

The guest list for yesterday's event, drawn up by Lady Thatcher, included Tory leader David Cameron - who entered No 10 via a rear door.

During the reception, Mr Brown paid tribute to Lady Thatcher's ' determination, resolution and courage'.

After Mr Stone removed the cloth, she delivered her verdict: 'I'm not sure if it's good or not, but I like it.'


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