A second election won’t help, say Ken Clarke

Outspoken former Tory minister Ken Clarke has said that a second election would not offer a significantly altered result. Speaking to the Guardian the veteran Tory said:

“You can get out of a hung parliament by having a second election but, not surprisingly, the public tends to return a parliament which looks rather like the first one”

The quote comes as a group of David Cameron’s supporters within the Conservatives prepare to try and fight off a challenge from the right if the Tories do not win a decisive victory on Thursday. David Cameron is apparently prepared to warn the influential 1922 Backbench Committee of Tory MPs that if he is forced out as leader, it may well open the way to Ed Miliband forming a government.

While this is widely seen as a supportive intervention, hoping to focus the minds of undecided voters, Clarke has previously been highly critical of the Tory campaign. In an interview with the New Statesman he said that the Party’s uncosted spending commitments are a mistake and that the reason the Tories had not won an electoral victory for 23 years was because they are “too right-wing”.