Country Needs a Change of Direction, Not Just a Change at the Top: Campbell

1.42.58pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 27th Jun 2007

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Menzies Campbell said that the country needed a change in direction not just a change in personnel at the top.

Launching an attack on the last ten years of Blair-Brown, Menzies Campbell said that Gordon Brown can not distance himself from the last ten years because his fingerprints are at the scene of the crime. He said that the vast majority of people had been let down over the last 10 years. Since 1997:

• Children from poorer backgrounds are doing worse

• Students are saddled with mortgage-style debts

• The poorest are paying a higher proportion of tax than the richest

• Only one in every hundred crimes in this country is punished in court

Speaking as Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, Menzies Campbell said:

"Gordon Brown cannot escape the last ten years. Labour's failures are his failures too.

"This is the man who has signed the cheques for the Iraq war and who raised taxes for the poorest and lowered them for the richest.

"Britain needs a change in direction not just a change at the top."