Don't target Labour says Clarke

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Nick Clegg is in "cloud cuckoo land" if he thinks the Liberal Democrats can overtake Labour, former home secretary Charles Clarke has said.

Speaking at a fringe meeting at the Lib Dem conference, Mr Clarke said Mr Clegg should stop targeting Labour seats and focus on preventing a Tory landslide.

The Tories could be "in power for the next 10 to 15 years" if they win the next general election, he said.

Sir Menzies Campbell said the Lib Dems and Labour should work together.

The former Lib Dem leader said: "If Armageddon were to happen and we were faced with a long term Conservative government....the opportunity for that cooperation would not so much be a matter of choice but a matter of compulsion".

On the eve of his party conference, Mr Clegg claimed the Lib Dems were poised to replace Labour as the true progressive force in British politics, calling Labour a "spent force".

'Battle scars'

But Mr Clarke told an Institute of Public Policy Research fringe meeting that the next election, which must happen before June, could be a "seminal" one which could see the Tories being in power for over a decade.

And instead of attacking Labour, he said the Lib Dems should be focusing on beating the Tories. He said his message for Mr Clegg was: "Don't take Labour seats as your targets".

He also criticised Mr Clegg for a lack of "coherence" in his leadership, which had seen him attack Labour, the Tories and even the Greens.

Nobody joined the Lib Dems for power at any price Lord McNally

"There has got to be coherent position, which I would say should be in the centre of British politics," said Mr Clarke, who is due to make a speech on Labour's future direction on Wednesday.

He added: "Saying 'we are going to take the place of Labour' is cloud cuckoo land."

At a separate fringe meeting, Lord McNally, Lib Dem leader in the Lords, said that despite "battle scars" from previous coalition talks that went nowhere, such as with Labour before the 1997 general election, the Lib Dems had to "get used to the idea of the possibility" of a hung parliament and work out how to respond.

"We have had experience in Wales and Scotland of being able to share power successfully. Given the situation of this country and the challenges likely to face it, to have the opportunity to share in government and to run away from it would be a dereliction of duty for this party.

"But that does not mean power at any price. Nobody joined the Lib Dems for power at any price."

He said any coalition deal would have to be approved by the Parliamentary party and by grass roots party members.

"This cannot be a personal decision by a party leader going into No 10 and walking out later saying he is foreign secretary. He has got to be able to take his parliamentary party with him and the party in the country."

But he warned that any coalition discussions would inevitably take place over a short period of time and amid "general hysteria and demand for action" by the public and the financial markets.

He also claimed that the Tories would not have the "automatic right" to govern as a minority administration if they emerged as the largest single party after the next election, having been so far ahead in the polls and "squandered" that lead.

In that situation, he said the "onus would be on the Queen not to call for Mr Cameron but whoever could command a majority in the House of Commons."