Brown and Cameron are the real roadblocks to reform - Clegg

Nick Clegg will today [Monday] challenge the other two party leaders to agree an emergency programme of political reform.

Speaking at an election summit of parliamentarians and parliamentary candidates on Monday, the Liberal Democrat Leader will challenge Gordon Brown and David Cameron to sign up to the programme of political reform as a first step to restore public faith in politics.

Nick Clegg will say:

"In the light of the charges brought by the DPP against a number of MPs and peers, Gordon Brown and David Cameron are suddenly falling over themselves to talk about political reform. Nobody should be fooled.

"Gordon Brown has been the obdurate obstacle to almost every attempt at political reform over the past 13 years, while the double-speak of David Cameron - who even now refuses to divulge the tax status of one of his party's biggest donors - is simply breathtaking.

"Listening to the two of them anyone would think they were powerless backbenchers rather than the leaders of the two parties in Parliament which have proved to be the real roadblocks to reform. It's like a couple of cowboy builders coming back to your house to tell you how bad their workmanship is.

"If they genuinely want political change, it is in their power to deliver it. So I challenge them to cut out the speeches and the rhetoric and get on with the job. They can do that today by signing up to five basic principles of reform.

"If Gordon Brown and David Cameron can't even sign up to these most minimal commitments, the public will see their rhetoric for the opportunistic party point scoring that it is."