David Cameron: ‘This is a high stakes, high risk election’

The Tories want to frame this election as a straight choice between David Cameron and Ed Miliband. So, today Cameron delivered some of his most direct attacks on Miliband yet. Anticipating criticism, he said, ‘Some might say “don’t make this personal” but when it comes to who’s Prime Minister, the personal is national.’

Cameron warned that Labour could reverse everything that has been achieved in this parliament, the ‘painstaking work of the last 5 years – they could undo in just 5 months.’ He attacked Labour as ‘the welfare party’ and derided Miliband as a ‘Hampstead Socialist’.

In contrast, he tried to paint the Tories as the party which is on your side, ‘we’re with you’ he said repeatedly. Interestingly, he said that the rise in the tax free allowance meant that the Tories were ‘the party of the hardworking poor once more’, which sounded like an admission that they had lost sight of these people in the past. He ended by urging voters to let the Tories finish the job, saying the ‘sunlit uplands’ are ‘in sight’.

The Tories believe that the more important voters think this election is, the more likely they are to vote for them. So, expect to hear the Tories trying to raise the stakes at every opportunity.