Britain's Liberal Democrats hint at future coalition with Labour

LONDON (Reuters) - The leader of the Britain's Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in Prime Minister David Cameron's coalition government, has hinted at forming a future coalition government with the Labour party after the 2015 election. Polls show the election will be close with Labour currently leading Cameron's Conservatives by around 4 to 7 percentage points. If none of the parties win an overall majority of seats, the Liberal Democrats could hold the balance of power. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, Britain's deputy prime minister, said Ed Miliband's opposition Labour party had realised it might have to share power after 2015. "There's nothing like the prospect of reality in an election to get politicians to think again and the Labour party, which is a party unused to sharing power with others, is realising that it might have to," Clegg said in an interview with the BBC. Clegg said that if there was a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition government, his party would "absolutely insist that government would not break the bank," the BBC reported. "I think the Conservative party has changed quite dramatically since we entered into coalition with them. They've become much more ideological, they've returned much more to a lot of their familiar theme tunes," Clegg was quoted as saying by the Guardian newspaper. (Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)