Rob Merrick on last night’s history- making General Election TV debate

LIBERAL Democrat leader Nick Clegg was declared the clear winner of Britain’s first TV election debate, after the party leaders traded blows on schools, hospitals, crime and the economic crisis.

After an historic night in Manchester, two separate polls suggested Mr Clegg had triumphed over both Gordon Brown and David Cameron, the Conservative leader, after 90 minutes of cut-and-thrust.

One survey, carried out for ITV News, found 43% of 4,032 voters rated the Lib-Dem leader the winner, against 26% for Mr Cameron and 20% for Mr Brown.

A second poll declared a similar result, with 51% of the 1,091 people questioned by YouGov picking Mr Clegg, comfortably ahead of the Tory leader (29%) and the Prime Minister (19%).

The much-hyped debate passed without any of the three would-be Prime Ministers committing the sort of gaffe that might have destroyed their party’s chances in the election on May 6.

It also, surprisingly, lacked the expected witty one-liners that have lit up some of the Presidential debates in the United States – only Mr Brown raising a small laugh from the 200-strong audience.

Instead, the debate was heavy on policy detail, frequently featuring Mr Brown attempting to isolate the Conservative leader, saying repeatedly: “I agree with Nick.”

Both the Labour and Tory leaders performed competently – and did nothing to undermine support among their traditional supporters – but, arguably, did nothing to change the campaign.

Mr Clegg arguably gained the most simply because he was by far the least well-known of the leaders before the debate started, given the media’s frequent ignoring of the Lib-Dems outside of election campaigns.

The early skirmishes featured Mr Clegg condemning “greedy bankers”, Mr Brown warning of a “double-dip recession” under the Tories and Mr Cameron condemning the expenses scandal.

On immigration, the Conservative leader attacked an increase of 2m migrants over the last decade, but found both other leaders attacking his plan for a strict cap on incomers.

Mr Clegg delivered the most eye-catching attack, warning that the hard-line Conservative plan might, if the limit had been reached, prevent a top footballer coming “to play for Manchester United”.

The leaders clashed on law and order, with Mr Cameron insisting “the system is not working properly”.

“We are not seeing enough police on the street, we are not catching enough burglars, we are not convicting enough and, when we do convict them, they are not getting long enough sentences.”

Mr Cameron said he met a woman in Crosby who was burgled by a man who had recently left prison.

As he fled the property, he set fire to her sofa and her son died in the ensuing blaze. “That burglar, that murderer, could be out of prison in just 4½ years.