Prime Ministers who take office in the middle of a parliamentary term should be required to secure their own mandate by holding a General Election within six months, Conservative leader David Cameron has said.
Campaigning in Essex, Mr Cameron said that Prime Ministers should be voted into 10 Downing Street by the people of Britain, not because their party has "stitched up some deal" as happened when Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair in 2007.
And the Tory leader warned that behind-the-scenes haggling in a hung Parliament could result in a Prime Minister emerging who was not even the leader of one of the parties fighting the election on May 6.
In one of his strongest warnings yet about the dangers of a hung Parliament, Mr Cameron said that an indecisive result would lead to "bickering, horse-trading and arguing" at Westminster, while holding back the process of change which the country needed.
Under Mr Cameron's plans, a Tory government would amend the Septennial Act 1715 - which requires elections to be held at least every five years - to ensure that Parliament was automatically dissolved six months after a change of Prime Minister for any other reason than a General Election.
Addressing activists at a college in the Tory target seat of Thurrock, Mr Cameron said: "You should hold office because the people vote for you, not because your party has stitched up some deal.
"That's the sort of real change you get from a decisive Conservative government. Would you get that change in a hung Parliament? In a hung Parliament we might end up with a Prime Minister who wasn't even involved in these TV debates.
"Is that change, is that democracy, is that progress? Of course it isn't."
Mr Cameron also said that a Tory administration would "put people in charge" by holding postal primaries to select candidates, open to all voters in a constituency regardless of their political views.
