A hung parliament's IT policy will be determined by the major party

As IT not a major consideration in Liberal Democrat manifesto

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has made it clear that IT policy considerations are unlikely to form a major consideration in negotiations around forming the next government if polling on 6 May results in a hung parliament.

He insisted at his manifesto launch that he genuinely wants to become prime minister and firmly resisted stating who he would back if the Lib Dems hold the balance at Westminster, leaving him to play the role of kingmaker.

The constitution provides for the existing government – Gordon Brown's administration – to attempt to form a government capable of wielding a majority in the Commons even if he secures fewer seats than the Tories, so he would have to seek a minority party partner or partners with sufficient seats to secure a majority in an early vote on a Queen's speech detailing his programme.

Depending on the numbers game, that may not need to include the Lib Dems if, for instance, Brown only needed a handful of seats and secured better terms, for example, from the combined Plaid Cymru/SNP nationalist block, which could number a dozen or so.

In those circumstances, Tory leader David Cameron would only be invited by the Queen to try to form a government if Mr Brown failed.

Clegg has said the party that secures the most support has the moral right to seek to form a government, and he could be in a sufficiently strong position to enforce that view.

However, he has refused to state whether "most support" should be measured in votes (as it would in a proportional representation system which his party supports), which would in most recent polls mean the Conservatives, or in seats, which would mean Labour. Asked which, he replied: "both".

Clegg is desperate to avoid any sign that he might work with the Tories, because that would lead to Labour taunts that a vote for the Lib Dems was the same as a vote for the Tories, or with Labour because the Tories would claim a vote for a Lib Dem candidate was the same as voting Labour.

If he did help the Tories back into office, the Home Office ID cards system and a biometric database would appear doomed, along with strict limits on DNA records and the scrapping of the controversial ContactPoint system for children.

But in any negotiation with Labour they could only be a factor – and a long way down the priority list – in a haggling process likely to include tax reform, spending cuts and key education and political policies such as the Lib Dems' long-held desire to replace the existing first-past-the-post voting system with a more proportionate one.