Further Reading
Member News
By Philippa Silverman - 5th October 2010
Former home secretary Charles Clarke has been a "loss to the Labour leadership election", according to Michael Gove.
The education secretary was impressed by the former home secretary's "five minute demolition" on the coalition government at a fringe event at the Conservative party conference.
Speaking last night at an event hosted by the Guardian, Clarke accused the coalition government of "incompetence" as it had failed to "get hold" of the key issues.
The former minister said voters would lose confidence in the government over its management of key issues including law and order, health and education.
He told the fringe: "I think there are early signs that the coalition hasn't got hold of some of the key problems about how you govern and how you run the country."
Clarke critcised law and order measures such as elected police chiefs, plans to cut police numbers, the scrapping of ID cards and action on the DNA database.
The former home secretary said that after "more than a decade of crime going down, crime will start to go up again under this government".
On health, he raised "serious, serious concerns" on the delivery of healthcare in the UK.
And he predicted that, should splits emerge, the two coalition parties would soon be so far behind in opinion polls that they would struggle for the full five years in Parliament rather than call an early election.
The education secretary responded that Clarke had been a loss to both Labour's leadership election and the House of Commons.
Gove said: "In five minutes, you have done a far more effective demolition job on the coalition than any of the leadership candidates were able to in five months."
Listen to the full fringe meeting online.
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.