DAVID Cameron has hit back at suggestions he made a political blunder by ruling out a third term in office before voters had given him a second one, insisting his remarks were a "very reasonable, sensible thing to say".
But a Labour frontbench source described the Prime Minister's words as "a gift from the gods", which Ed Miliband is set to make political capital with today at the last Commons question-time of the UK Parliament and in tomorrow's televised General Election question and answer session.
While senior Conservative colleagues rallied to their leader, insisting he had simply given a "straight answer to a straight question", the general mood at Westminster was that Mr Cameron had made an almighty mistake, which showed him as arrogant and taking voters for granted, proved an unnecessary distraction to the election campaign, and, in addition, had set a hare running about his successor, which, if the Tories won the election, would continue throughout the whole of the next Parliament.
During a question and answer session at an Age UK rally - at which he was heckled over the NHS - the PM sought to defuse the row over his third-term remarks, urging people to "just focus on the issue" of who they wanted to run the country.
He also dismissed calls for him to set out exactly how the Tory leadership succession would work as "endless games of political processes," which the public would not be interested in.
In response to claims of arrogance, Mr Cameron told the audience in London: "I am taking absolutely nothing for granted. My entire focus is on the next 44 days and the General Election, which will decide which team runs this country for the next five years.
"I want that to be me and my team but the alternative is Ed Miliband and his team and that is the focus that I have in the days ahead."
He went on: "What I did in my kitchen is I gave a very straight answer to a very straight question and people will understand that; saying you want to serve a full second term for a full five years is a very reasonable, sensible thing to say. So we should just focus on the issues at the election about who do you want to run the country for the next five years."
After Michael Gove, the Chief Whip, and Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, rallied to Mr Cameron, defending his third-term remarks, George Osborne, the Chancellor, intervened, saying: "It's really refreshing that we have a Prime Minister who gives a direct answer to a direct question. He has said he's going to serve that full five years."
But Michael Portillo, the former Tory Cabinet Minister, was less generous, branding Mr Cameron's remarks "bizarre".
"When you play chess," he observed, "you have to consider the next two moves and I don't think he did. There is no point setting off on this wild goose chase in the middle of an election campaign."
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