ANKARA
British PM David Cameron refused Friday an offer from main opposition leader Ed Miliband for a live one-on-one debate before the general election next month.
Center-left Labour Party leader Miliband made his challenge to Cameron, of the center-right Conservative Party, in his closing speech at the end of Thursday's opposition leaders’ debate.
“David, if you think this election is about leadership, then debate me one-on-one,” he said. “I believe my ideas, my vision for the country, are better for the working families of Britain. If you disagree, then prove it. Debate me and let the people decide.”
Speaking at a campaign event in Birmingham on Friday, Cameron refused to take on Miliband’s challenge.
“We’ve had 146 debates at prime minister’s questions and I think people have seen a lot of those to get the measure of us,” he said.
Nick Clegg, leader of the centrist Liberal Democrat Party and deputy prime minister, was happy to rise to the challenge, however.
The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government in 2010 after elections in the same year ended in a hung parliament.
“I’ll debate with you Ed Miliband, even if David Cameron won’t. Any time, any place, anywhere,” Clegg tweeted shortly after the debate.
Neither Cameron nor Clegg were present in Thursday's debate as it was meant for opposition leaders only.
A snap poll released after the debate was inconclusive as to who came off best.
The poll, carried out for the center-left Daily Mirror newspaper, found that Miliband came in first place, with 35 percent believing he had “won,” compared with 31 percent who believed Nicola Sturgeon of the left-wing separatist Scottish National Party had won.
The same poll, however, found that 35 percent believed Sturgeon performed best, compared with 29 percent for Miliband.
The Scottish section of those polled gave an emphatic lead to Sturgeon with 68 percent, compared with Miliband’s meager 17 percent.
The rise of the SNP in Labour's traditional Scottish heartland threatens Miliband's chances of forming a majority government.
