London---British political parties scrambled to claim victory Friday after no clear winner emerged from the only seven-way leaders' debate before the general election.
Snap polls conducted after Thursday night's two-hour live television battle produced varying results as to who performed best.
The debate saw Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron's method for balancing the budget come under attack from all corners.
Meanwhile Labour main opposition leader Ed Miliband, his chief rival for the premiership, sought to improve an awkward media image with some well-rehearsed pieces to camera.
In a seven-way format that underscored the fragmentation of the electorate, fringe party leaders revelled in the limelight, as polls predict Britain is heading for another hung parliament at the May 7 vote.
The ITV debate attracted a peak audience of 7.4 million, or 33 percent of viewers at the time.
Out on the campaign trail Friday, Cameron claimed victory and said he was "delighted" with the debate.
"My impression of the debate is very much that there is one person, one leader, one party that is offering the competence of a long-term plan that is working and then there is a kind of coalition of chaos out there that wants more debt, spending and taxes," he said.
"I am glad the poll of polls has got me coming out on top."
- 'Two possible PMs' -
Miliband said Friday he was leaving punditry on the debate to others but said he had set out the choices facing the electorate.
"There were seven leaders on the stage but there are only two prime ministers possible after the next election," he said.
"What I think the British public were able to see was that choice very starkly."
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who leads the governing coalition's junior partners, the Liberal Democrats, said: "The fact that there were seven there just shows that politics is becoming more fragmented.
"No one is going to win this election outright, so it's all about who is going to work with who."
The leaders taking part were Cameron; Clegg; Miliband; Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party (UKIP); Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party; Leanne Wood of Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru and Natalie Bennett of the Greens.
They debated the economy, state healthcare, immigration and the future for young people in terms of education, housing and jobs.
AFP
