
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has said his party is now fighting to win seats they never thought they could gain a few months ago.He refused to say how many extra seats the Lib Dems hoped to take, but told the BBC that the "sky's the limit" in terms of their aspirations.
He added the party had more than a hundred seats it was targeting.
Mr Clegg also said the Guardian's decision to back his party was a "significant" moment.
Speaking to the BBC from Somerset, a county where the election battle is primarily between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives, Mr Clegg said: "We are certainly now campaigning hard in more seats - scores and scores of more seats - than we ever have done since the Lib Dems started.
"The sky's the limit in an election campaign where all bets are off." While on a tour of the Clark's Village retail centre in Street, Mr Clegg faced questions from the public over Lib Dem immigration policies.
One shopper asked Mr Clegg whether Somerset would "suffer" as a result of the party's proposals to restrict immigrants to working in a designated region.
Mr Clegg insisted that deciding where immigrants could work should be taken by the "regions themselves" and not ministers in Whitehall.
Greater fairness
Mr Clegg also acknowledged the Lib Dems were competing in seats where it would have been "inconceivable" for them to expect to win until the first televised debate boosted his profile in the election campaign.
"The Liberal Democrats are now a positive rallying point for many people who want to see the best of what we are capable of as a country, which is to deliver the fairness that millions of people have for so long been denied," he said.
Responding to an editorial in Saturday's Guardian - in which the newspaper said if it had a vote it would "enthusiastically" choose the Lib Dems - Mr Clegg said "this is a paper that has been supporting Labour for a very long time".
He added: "The reasons why The Guardian has decided to back us so enthusiastically very much reflect what a lot of people who used to invest a lot of hope in Labour now feel.
"They feel very let down after 13 years. They kind of feel that on the hope for political reform, on the hope for progress on civil liberties, on the hope for greater fairness in the tax system, a new approach to foreign affairs they are now looking to the Liberal Democrats."
Labour has brushed off the Guardian's stance with Business Secretary Lord Mandelson saying its endorsement of the Lib Dems was not a blow.This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

