Vote 2010: Tories' 'style over substance', Clegg tells Bradford voters - VIDEO

LIBERAL Democrat leader Nick Clegg, visiting Yorkshire this morning, promised a "manifesto you can trust" when his party outlines its plans for government tomorrow.

Election coverage in full

The Tory manifesto published today was a triumph of "style over substance", he said.

Mr Clegg said his own blueprint for power would not promise "something for nothing", unlike Labour and the Tories.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Speaking on the campaign trail in Bradford, West Yorkshire, he said: "You can't trust the Conservatives.

"They have just launched a manifesto in a power station that doesn't generate power.

"It's a manifesto of style over substance."

Mr Clegg said: "You can't trust the Conservatives when they want to give tax breaks to double millionaires not tax breaks to everybody else.

"You can't trust the Conservatives when they don't want to clamp down on the bonuses of greedy bankers.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"You can't trust the Conservatives when they don't really want to clean out the corrupt state of politics in Westminster.

"That's why I think we need something different."

Mr Clegg continued: "David Cameron seems to think that it's just his turn to govern, that he should just inherit power rather than earn it."

Asked whether the Tory manifesto made Lib Dem support for a Tory administration in the event of a hung parliament less likely, Mr Clegg said: "It makes me more determined to offer something different to offer something different to the British people."

Yesterday the Labour manifesto promised fairness which "they haven't delivered" in their 13 years of government, Mr Clegg said.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Lib Dems will produce "a manifesto that you can trust, a manifesto that you can believe in".

He added: "We are not going to promise something for nothing, which is what we've had now from Labour yesterday and the Conservatives today.

"That will be one big difference between the Liberal Democrats and the other two old parties."

Mr Clegg was presented with a bouquet of flowers by four-year-old Naina Kainth on his arrival.

mfl

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Page 3: 13:15Earlier today, Mr Clegg unveiled plans to crack down on "obscene" bankers' bonuses, warning there would be "no reward for failure".

He said he wanted to see a change in the City of London "as fundamental as the Big Bang of the 1980s".

Under the Liberal Democrats, all bonuses over 2,500 would have to be paid in shares and there would be no bonuses at all at board level.

Any loss-making financial institution would not be allowed to pay discretionary bonuses.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And the names of all bank staff whose pay and bonuses are greater than the Prime Minister's salary - just under 200,000 - would be published.

At this morning's press conference in London, Mr Clegg said the Lib Dem manifesto would reveal a "new approach" to a financially stable economy - "where we learn as a country to build things again, not just bet on things on computer screens in the City of London".

He said: "The implosion in the British banking system was a classic example of a vested interest, a clique of one industry holding a gun to the head of the rest of the British economy.

"Yet, despite all the talk about cleaning up the banking system, all the elements are still in place for that implosion to happen all over again.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"Our view is that we simply don't have the luxury in this country not to reform the banking system in this country from top to toe."

He added: "Bankers must understand that making huge bonuses - subsidised directly and indirectly by the taxpayer while viable British businesses are being starved of cash, people are losing their jobs, homes are being repossessed - is morally obscene."

Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said he believed the banking industry at the moment was showing "some of the characteristics of the cartel".

Tomorrow's manifesto will set out more detail on the party's plans to enforce levies on banks to ensure they lent to viable businesses.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Lib Dems also pledge to separate high-risk banks from retail banks to make sure that "never again are your everyday savings held hostage by the obscene greed and risk-taking by bankers in the City of London".