Bid to end PM's right to decide day

Two of the party's senior MPs will table a Bill in the House of Commons on Monday which would fix Parliamentary terms at four years, making the next poll May 7, 2009.

Sir Menzies said it was now "generally accepted" that Number 10 should be stripped of the right to pick the date, so that it could not be influenced by party politics.

"I think it is now generally accepted that it is quite wrong that it should be within the discretion of the Prime Minister to decide when he wants a general election because inevitably, as the events of the last two or three weeks have shown, that decision will be based on what's thought to be best for the governing party rather than what's thought to be best for the people of this country," he told Sunday Live on Sky News.

The Fixed Term Parliaments Bill will be tabled by front bench spokesmen David Howarth and David Heath as soon as the Commons returns from its summer break on Monday.

It would set the election date as the first Thursday in May every four years and outlaw the dissolution of Parliament between polls.

Mr Howarth MP said: "The Liberal Democrats have for a long time argued that Parliament should be on the basis of fixed terms like most other modern democratic countries.

"It's quite wrong that the Prime Minister of the day should be able to fiddle the dates of the election for short-term political advantage. Events over the last few days have shown how damaging it is to the political system for the Prime Minister to have that discretion.

"Gordon Brown has been playing games with the electorate in a system that is all too open to abuse."

Tory leader David Cameron said there were "real drawbacks" to a fixed-term system but said it would be examined by the Tories.