Glasgow East byelection: Clegg calls for Cameron apology over morality speech

Glasgow city centre
Glasgow: Photograph: Getty/Colin Prior Colin Prior/Getty

The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, today used the Glasgow East byelection campaign to accuse David Cameron of "arrogance" as he called on him to apologise for a speech in which he appealed for a greater sense of public morality.

In a hard-hitting attack on the Tory leader, Clegg said Cameron had effectively claimed that if people were out of a job or struggling to make ends meet it was their own fault.

The Lib Dem leader, who joined his party's candidate, maths teacher Ian Robertson, to campaign in Glasgow today, said: "If David Cameron had any decency he would apologise to the people of Glasgow East for the arrogance of his comments."

The Lib Dem leader was referring to a speech made by Cameron at the launch of the Tory byelection campaign on Monday, in which he appealed for a greater sense of public morality, saying politicians were too afraid to say what was right and wrong.

In the most controversial section of his speech, the Tory leader said: "We talk about people being at risk of obesity, instead of talking about people who eat too much and take too little exercise.

"We talk about people being at risk of poverty or social exclusion - it's as if these things, obesity, alcohol abuse, drug addiction, are purely external events like a plague or bad weather."

Clegg, who began his campaign visit with a tour of a Scottish Gas training facility in the constituency, said the area had been neglected for "generations" by Labour, while the SNP wanted to treat voters as "pawns" in a political game at Holyrood and Westminster.

The byelection – called after Labour's David Marshall stood down due to health reasons - is due to take place in just over a fortnight. Marshall had a majority of 13,500 over the Nationalists.

Clegg said: "You are certainly not going to get any hope from the Conservatives, whose leader had the arrogance to come here just recently and tell you that even if you are struggling on benefits, struggling to make ends meet, struggling to find a job, struggling to cope with poverty, that it's your own fault and he won't lift a finger to help you."

He went on: "I think there is no excuse in politics for the lucky and the privileged to show such contempt for the poor and the forgotten."

Clegg also attacked Labour, saying the constituency had been neglected by a government that was "increasingly pointless", led by a prime minister who was also increasingly pointless.

"I think Gordon Brown's political credibility is almost entirely evaporated already," said Clegg.

"If he cannot hold on to a seat which for generations has been synonymous with the Labour party I think he will pretty well have forfeited any remaining credibility he has with the people of Glasgow, Scotland, and Britain."

Meanwhile, the SNP and Labour today clashed over law and order in the Glasgow campaign.

The two frontrunners sought to highlight their party's records on tackling crime.

Margaret Curran, Labour's candidate, was today announcing a "safer street action plan".

But the SNP pre-empted her speech with claims that "early and effective" action taken by the nationalist administration in Holyrood had seen crime fall by up to 24% in the constituency.

The SNP's candidate, John Mason, who is tipped as a serious challenger for the formerly safe Labour seat, called for Labour to back action to tackle the problem of airguns and reduce access to cheap drink.

He also highlighted plans for recruiting an extra 1,000 police officers in Scotland.

Mason said: "The SNP has a record of success in this constituency after only 12 months in government in training more police for our streets, tackling the gangs, reducing knife crime, and bringing forward radical proposals to target the cheap-booze culture that fuels much of the violence in our communities."

He also boasted a "real improvement" on tackling gang culture, backed by extra funding.

Curran hit back at the SNP claims, saying that some of the decrease in crime in the area was a result of the previous – Labour – administration's work on areas such as antisocial behaviour.

After meeting senior police officers at the Glasgow's London Road divisional police headquarters she offered a five-point plan to make the streets safer.

"I believe that people who do not understand that do not live with it," she said. "I have always seen it as one of my jobs to represent those on the receiving end of very significant levels of crime and antisocial behaviour. I will never be defeatist about it; I will never accept it can't be tackled."

She pledged a particular focus on knife crime, which she said was "deep-seated and far too prevalent".

Her plan involves doubling the number of extra police on East End streets, demanding an "emergency meeting" with police to get officers out of cars and visible on the streets, and jail for anyone carrying a lethal blade.

Curran said the city council had paid for 20 extra police "because the SNP broke their promise in recruiting extra officers".

She described crime and antisocial behaviour as a "huge" issue.

"What is an argument in another part of the world becomes a fight in Glasgow, what is a fight in Glasgow becomes a violent incident in the East End of Glasgow, and what is a violent incident in another part of the world becomes a death in Glasgow."

Curran is the MSP for Glasgow Baillieston and was adopted as the party's candidate for the Westminster seat after the previous frontrunner, George Ryan, pulled out citing family reasons.