David Cameron to be Prime Minister in days

DAVID Cameron was on the brink of becoming Prime Minister last night as the Tories and Lib Dems edged close to a historic deal.

David Cameron was on the brink of becoming Prime Minister last night David Cameron was on the brink of becoming Prime Minister last night

The Conservative leader could be ready to tell the Queen he is able to form a new government as early as today.

It will finally eject Gordon Brown from Downing Street and usher the Tories back into power for the first time in 13 years.

But final details on the pact to propel Mr Cameron over the threshold of No 10 are still to be ironed out between senior Tory and Lib Dem negotiators. Mr Cameron and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg met for a second time last night, the two parties said. The meeting took place in the Commons. Their negotiating teams will meet in Whitehall again today.

DEBATE: SHOULD GORDON BROWN GO TODAY?

One source close to Mr Cameron said: “The mood music is good. Let’s wait and see.”

In a dramatic development yesterday, the Prime Minister sought to scupper the deal with a dramatic plea to Mr Clegg to form a Left-wing “rainbow coalition” to keep the Tories out. But insiders say Mr Clegg rebuffed the offer and is close to clinching a deal that will put the Tories in power with Lib Dem support.

Last night it emerged that some Cabinet ministers had secretly offered to dump Mr Brown as the price of a coalition deal with the Lib Dems.

Lib Dem sources said ministers had been in touch offering “the Prime Minister’s head on a platter” as bait to lure them into a separate pact with Labour.

It means Mr Clegg now faces a choice between three offers – one from the Tories, another from Mr Brown and a third from renegade Labour ministers desperate to force out Mr Brown.

Senior Tory and Lib Dems were locked in talks in the Cabinet Office for more than seven hours yesterday.

Just before 6pm, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague emerged to confirm that the talks were making progress. He said: “We’ve had some very positive and productive discussions over many key policy areas.

“The issues we have covered have included political reform, economic issues and the reduction of the deficit, banking reform, civil liberties, environmental issues. So we’ve had good discussions about all of those areas. We intend to meet again over the next 24 hours. We are agreed that a central part of any agreement that we make will be economic stability and a reduction of the budget deficit.

“Each negotiating team is now going to report to our party leaders.”

Mr Clegg’s chief of staff Danny Alexander said: “We’re agreed that whatever any agreement made will have deficit reduction and economic stability at its heart.”

Both teams emphasised that their talks had centred on the urgent need to tackle the Treasury’s record borrowing crisis. It is thought that any deal is likely to stop short of a full Con-Lib coalition, with senior Lib Dems such as Vince Cable and Chris Huhne getting seats at the Cabinet table.

Instead, some sort of formal pact keeping the Tories in power to tackle the economic crisis is believed to be close to being hammered out.

Neither negotiating team mentioned the subject of overhauling the voting system, which is the biggest sticking point between the two parties.

Both sides face potential difficulties in selling a deal to their own supporters amid a long history of distrust. The discussions concluded after another frenetic day at Westminster, in turmoil after last Thursday’s General Election left the country with a hung Parliament.

Mr Brown – who yesterday refused to answer questions about whether he would resign – returned to Downing Street from his Fife home for talks with close allies.

Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg both emerged from their London homes for separate meetings with party supporters.

The Lib Dem leader – dressed in a smart business suit – also slipped into the Foreign Office in Whitehall for a secret meeting with the Prime Minister. Labour and Lib Dem sources said that the meeting followed a telephone call between the two men last night and was intended to update each other on the situation.

Both sides described the discussion as “amicable”. Senior Tories were relaxed about the meeting, suggesting Mr Brown had little hope of luring the Lib Dems to prop up a defeated and rejected Labour government.

Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg were striving to sell their draft deal to their parties. The Tory leader fears a potentially uncomfortable meeting of the backbench Conservative 1922 Committee today, with some traditional Tories enraged about the prospect of a deal with the Left-wing, Euro-fanatic Lib Dems.

One Tory MP said: “There are many of us who will have nothing to do with Clegg and his cronies.”

And there is bound to be concern about Lib Dem demands for introducing proportional representation for Westminster elections, with many Tories fiercely opposed to scrapping the first-past-the-post system.

Senior Lib Dems were adamant that the Tories would have to offer more than a committee of inquiry into voting reform.

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