David Laws rallies student activists

10.04.00pm GMT Wed 23rd Feb 2005

David Laws, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told a meeting of Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats on Tuesday "the Liberal Democrats are doing well across the country, and I am very reassured to hear how much support we are gaining here in Cambridge."

He went on to describe his vision for the election and the next parliament: "With a very weak Conservative party there is a very real possibility of us continuing to gain votes and seats. After the next election we will be in a more powerful position, and it will be shown we are in a three party system."

On the contentious issue of public service reform, both Mr Laws and Cambridge Parliamentary Spokesperson David Howarth agreed it was important to distinguish the ideological debate from the technical one. Howarth explained:

"The technical debate is about how we fund services, but the ideology, our ideology in the Liberal Democrats, is that these services should be free to the public. This is a principle Labour are continuing to retreat from."