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| Gordon calls May 6 poll |
Gordon Brown today fired the election gun for May 6 - as all three main parties made fresh promises to clean-up a 'rotten' Westminster crippled by the MPs' expenses scandal.
The Prime Minister - who is facing his first election as PM - appealed for a "clear and straightforward mandate" from the British people to secure a historic fourth Labour term in office.
In a speech outside Number 10, Mr Brown drew on his modest upbringing to draw a line between himself and the wave of sleaze that has washed over Westminster in the past two years.
He said: "I come from an ordinary middle-class family in an ordinary town and I know where I come from and I will never forget the values - doing the right thing, doing your duty, taking responsibility, working hard - that my parents instilled in me."
He went on: "I'm asking you, the British people, for a clear and straightforward mandate to continue the urgent and hard work securing the recovery, building our industries for the future, and creating a million skilled jobs over the next five years."
Tory leader David Cameron pre-empted the official announcement with an off-the-cuff speech to supporters outside London's County Hall. He declared this would be "the most important General Election for a generation" and said Britain had to get off the "road to ruin".
He said: "If you vote Conservative, you are voting for hope, you are voting for optimism, you are voting for change, you are voting for the fresh start this country - our country - so badly needs."
And Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg insisted "all bets are off" as the nation prepares to decide the closest-run campaign since 1992. "This is a huge, huge election. It is certainly the beginning of the end for Brown," he said.
"He is directly responsible for so many things that have gone wrong in the last 13 years: the illegal invasion of Iraq; the unfairness and inequality in Britain that we have been campaigning against; and the rottenness and corruption in Parliament."
The three party leaders hit the campaign trail immediately after Mr Brown's confirmation of polling day, fanning out across the country.
And our political team is fanning out across Britain too - visiting key constituencies to discover the real issues facing real voters. Keep checking back for our daily updates.
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