Prime Minister Gordon Brown this morning confirmed that the UK general election will be held on 6 May.
He began the day with chairing a cabinet meeting at 09:15am which lasted around 45minutes. The Prime Minister then left Downing Street shortly after 10:00am to make his journey to Buckingham Palace for an audience with the Queen. Her Majesty had flown in by helicopter from Windsor a few minutes earlier.
The formalities between the Prime Minister and the Queen lasted 23 minutes. He then returned to Downing Street to name the date on the steps of No 10.
Surrounded by his entire cabinet he announced what he called "probably the worst-kept secret of recent years" and began his pitch to the electorate with a reference to his ordinary background, his opponents will label that as a return to the class war strategy backed by the Prime Minister's closest colleague Ed Balls and his former advisor Charlie Whelan.
He moved on to the economy saying Britain was on the "road to recovery" and urged voters not to put it "at risk". And he added: "We will not allow 13 years of investment and reform in our public services, to build up the future of these great services, to be put at risk." He also paid tribute to the "courage" of the armed forces in Afghanistan and said Labour would "support them in every way", and would produce a plan to make politics more transparent and accountable.
Mr Brown stressed his ordinary upbringing and said Labour would "fight for fairness at all times". Mr Brown said: "We will say to the British people: 'Our cause is your cause'," before adding: "Let's go to it."
