Former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown has jumped into the hung parliament debate by rejecting claims an indecisive outcome to the general election would be bad for the country.
"Is a hung parliament a disaster for Britain? Absolutely not," he told politics.co.uk in an exclusive interview.
Senior Labour and Conservative politicians have sought to address the recent surge in the polls for Britain's third party by arguing a hung parliament would undermine Britain's AAA credit rating.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has talked of a "balanced" parliament in a bid to make the prospect of a Commons without any party holding an overall majority more attractive. He has shied away from directly addressing the issue, however.
Now Lord Ashdown, who led the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1999, has addressed Gordon Brown and David Cameron's concerns head on.
"Take a lot at the top eight OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] countries - seven of them have coalition partnership governments and they've done the most effective responses to the economic crisis," he said.
Greece, which is expected to announce its decision on receiving assistance from the IMF in the next two weeks, is a majoritarian government, Lord Ashdown pointed out.
He said he did not believe the markets would crash in the event of a hung parliament, saying they had "already discounted for that possibility", before adding: "I think the British people may be wise to say we don't want any of you to govern, we want you to work together.
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