Lib Dem leadership hopeful Jo Swinson could lead her party back into coalition with the Tories, she admitted.
The bookies’ favourite to succeed Sir Vince Cable also left the door open to a pact with Labour .
But her confession she could once again help prop up a Conservative government will revive memories of the Lib Dems’ student tuition fees’ betrayal during five years of austerity-fuelled power.
She said: “I have not said never in any future scenario, where things are different.”
But she insisted taking the Lib Dems back into a coalition was not imminent.
“I’m looking at the situation right now in terms of being led by Brexiters on both sides,” she told The Herald.
“The same holds for confidence and supply. We need to stop Brexit and work with people who agree with us on that, and that’s not the leadership of the Conservatives or the Labour Party.”
Ms Swinson would become the first female leader of the Lib Dems if she beats former Energy Secretary Sir Ed Davey to the leadership.
He denied his former Cabinet role would jeopardise his chances in the race.
“I fought the Tories day in, day out,” he told the BBC.
“We stopped them putting even heavier welfare cuts, we stopped them cutting education.”
