There is no doubt that the final leader debate and its focus on the economy was meant to be the highlight of the election campaign thus far.  Unfortunately that accolade was stolen yesterday by a pensioner who while popping to the shop to buy a loaf of bread managed to bring Labour’s carefully stage-managed campaign to its knees; for a day at least.

BY KATHRYN McCANN

Although Duffy-gate itself was kept out of the debate, despite Brown’s early admission that he ‘doesn’t always get it right’, the issue that Gillian Duffy challenged Brown on, perhaps the defining issue of this election –immigration – overshadowed the entire evening.  The opening issue of the economy allowed the three aspiring Prime Ministers to stroll down now well worn paths, with no new or surprising revelations.  This, in spite of the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ highly critical public declaration this week that all three parties’ deficit reduction programmes were ‘unrealistic’, implying duping of the electorate concerning the severity of cuts in public spending. 

Brown did his usual critique of Tory plans to scrap the planned rise in national insurance, and instead focus on cutting the deficit, reiterating the Labour creed that this ‘slash and burn’ approach would cause irreprehensible damage to the recovery. Cameron clung to his mysterious 6 billion in ‘efficiency savings’, while Nick Clegg touted the Lib Dems’ planned levy on the banks and income tax relief. Therefore all in all, no surprises  from any of the three parties.

It wasn’t until halfway through the debate, with the realisation that it was no longer possible to tiptoe around the thorny issue of immigration that the real contest of wills begun. Clegg immediately came under fire from Cameron who accused Clegg of ‘wriggling’ away from his questions and called his planned amnesty on illegal immigrants, ‘profoundly misguided’. Clegg held his ground well against the attack, giving an impression of honesty and leadership as he referred to the fact he alone had made the tough decision to deal with the problem of illegal immigrants head on as they simply cannot be allowed to ‘live in the shadows’ of society. Gordon Brown was quickly drowned out in the heated exchange, throwing a few digs at the Lib Dems’ amnesty and Cameron’s undisclosed cap on immigration before staying silent, and it was left to David Dimbleby to try and include him in the debate.

Overall, apart from the amusing exchange between Cameron and Clegg on immigration, which was undoubtedly the high point, the remaining time was spent reiterating that which we have all heard many times before. Cameron pointed to 13 years of failed labour polices and the terrifying threat of another five years of Gordon, while Clegg kept up his mantra of the need to avoid ‘old party politics’. Brown meanwhile predictably compared Cameron’s government to the old Tories of the 1980s’, playing the Thatcher card to scare voters into swinging towards Labour. There was no clear winner of the debate, although it was much more policy heavy than the previous two. Perhaps the most interesting element was how the Cam/Clegg clash demonstrated the stark contrast between the Tories and the Lib Dems on policy, making the reality of a functional Lib-Con coalition increasingly unlikely. Labour would be right to take much more hope from this than from any idealistic notion that the final debate will have won Brown any more support in the polls.