UK opposition party rallies

2007-10-01 12:31

David Stringer

Blackpool - Two US political heavyweights offered support to Britain's opposition Conservative leader David Cameron, urging him to stand by his green agenda despite calls from rattled stalwarts to abandon his focus on environmental issues.

Cameron, 40, greeted party loyalists at a rally on Sunday in Blackpool, two years after he won the party leadership on a promise to modernise the party and transform its electoral fortunes.

But the Conservative Party has been trailing in recent opinion polls, and Cameron is fighting demands from within his right-leaning organisation to return to its traditional roots.

With Prime Minister Gordon Brown pondering an early election this year, some loyalists fear Cameron's programme has failed to win new supporters and could lead to yet another election defeat for the Conservatives.

California's Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had been due to appear in person but instead addressed the Conservative's annual conference by video link, told delegates their leader had won a global reputation by promoting climate change issues.

'Dynamic leader'

"You have been a great example to the rest of the world. That is the kind of leadership people want. That is the kind of leadership people are hungry for," said Schwarzenegger, who remained in the US to call a special legislative session on health care and water policy reforms.

Cameron is a "new, dynamic leader", Schwarzenegger said. "These are not conservative issues; these are not liberal issues; these are issues everyone cares about."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, on a European tour with stops in London and Paris, urged Conservatives to back their leader's environmental push, and compared Cameron to Winston Churchill, the iconic wartime British leader.

"It's not easy to propose controversial new ideas, but don't forget, no one pushed this party to embrace more unpopular positions than Sir Winston Churchill - and thank God he did," Bloomberg said, referring the World War 2 battle against fascism.

He also offered a tough message on financial management, noting market jitters in the US had extended to Britain, prompting a run on deposits at Northern Rock PLC, a mortgage lender.

'Conservatives have hearts'

"It's time to get our houses in order - because the sun is rising on our borrowing bacchanalia, and pretending otherwise will only make the recovery slower and more painful," he said.

Bloomberg, who has denied having any plans to seek the US presidency, advised Cameron to stick to his party's tradition of strict management of the nation's finances.

"Fiscal conservatives have hearts too - but we also insist on using our brains, and that means demanding results and holding government accountable for producing them," he said.

- SAPA