THE troubled times of the Prime Ministers deepened today when the Liberal Democrats announced they would focus on unseating Labour MPs at the next General Election.

Graham Dines

THE troubled times of the Prime Ministers deepened today when the Liberal Democrats announced they would focus on unseating Labour MPs at the next General Election.

The party's leader Nick Clegg believes the Lib Dems will achieve greater success by homing in on Labour areas, rather than concentrating on Tory areas as they did in 1997, 2001, and 2005.

In a downloadable podcast for the Lib Dem's website today, Mr Clegg said Labour had proved it could not deliver help with spiralling energy bills, or run public services effectively, according to Mr Clegg.

“It's over for them,”' he insisted. “There is no point voting Labour any more. There are no safe Labour seats. They will lose every by-election they fight in this parliament. And at the next general election, they will lose in their heartlands to the Liberal Democrats.

“A Labour vote is now a wasted vote.”

But Mr Clegg believes there are rich pickings for his parties in urban seats where David Cameron's Conservatives “haven't got a hope” and he named Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool and Oxford.

“This is a huge opportunity for us,'' he said. “We've got to seize it. So I'm shifting our resources to put more campaigners and more effort into those seats where we're taking on Labour.

“I've instructed our campaigns chief Chris Rennard to step up our campaigns in the 50 seats where we're best placed to beat Labour.”

The two seats in the East of England where the Lib Dems think they can win are Norwich South - currently represented by former Home Secretary Charles Clarke - and Watford.

Mr Clegg said the Lib Dems would launch a fundraising drive in the autumn specifically to bring in cash for fighting Labour.