Prime Minister David Cameron holds seven - year-old Amelie Bone on his shoulders as he watches the Tour de Yorkshire cycle race pass through Addingham near Ilkley.
Reuters/London
Britain’s Labour Party leader Ed Miliband has unveiled an 8 foot tall stone tablet engraved with his promises to voters ahead of a May 7 election, drawing ridicule on social media and from political rivals who likened it to a tombstone.
With four days to go until the vote, polls show Miliband’s party is neck and neck with Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives, with neither expected to win a majority.
In an attempt to convince swing voters he can be trusted to keep his election promises, Miliband unveiled the limestone monument containing manifesto pledges on the economy, living standards, healthcare, immigration and housing.
“These six pledges are now carved in stone,” he said. “They are carved in stone because they won’t be abandoned after the general election.”
Labour said the stone came as part of an effort to rebuild the public’s trust in politics, after the issue was highlighted by a series of pointed questions from the audience during last week’s final TV debate on BBC Question Time.
The pledges on the stone read: “A strong economic foundation”, “higher living standards for working families”, “an NHS with the time to care”, “controls on immigration”, “a country where the next generation can do better than the last” and “homes to buy and action on rents”.
“These six pledges are now carved in stone, and they are carved in stone because they won’t be abandoned after the general election.
“I want the British people to remember these pledges, to remind us of these pledges, to insist on these pledges, because I want the British people to be in no doubt – we will deliver them. We will restore faith in politics by delivering what we promised at this general election,” Miliband said.
