The leadership of the Liberal Democrats has been asked to clarify whether a coalition agreement could be made without the support of party members, as some in the party are worried that a coalition deal would be approved without them.
Any possible coalition deal would need to be agreed by the parliamentary party and then voted for by two-thirds of the party’s members, according to a change in the party’s constitution made after the party first formed a government with the Conservative party.
But at a meeting during the party’s spring conference in Liverpool, former director general of Age UK and one-time Liberal politician, Gordon Lishman, asked the Lib Dem deputy chief whip, Don Foster, to clarify what would happen if the view of the parliamentary party (made up of MPs) and the party’s members differed dramatically regarding the appropriateness of potential coalition deals, warning that any ambiguity could result in “mayhem”.
“I cannot bind any future parliamentary party in any decision it might make,” said Foster, “but let me say this to you, Gordon, in the circumstances that we’re talking about you are quite right in saying that the parliamentary party is supreme in the decision that it takes.”
He added that Liberal Democrat MPs would have to consider “political realities above all else”.
The newly appointed president of the Liberal Democrats, Sal Brinton, said the parliamentary party would make efforts to understand the views of members before any possible coalition was put to them to vote on at a conference held in the aftermath of the election.
She said that a parliamentary party that chose to ignore the views of the party as a whole would do so at its peril.
Despite the Liberal Democrat campaign focusing on the idea that the party as a moderating force in coalition with either Labour or the Conservative party , sources in the party say they are increasingly worried that a deal with either of the main parties would not achieve the two-thirds of support needed by the membership.
While there is a lot of anger about the coalition with the Conservative party, “Labour hates us and we hate Labour”, said one source.
“[A coalition with either of the main parties] might get through the parliamentary party and the federal executive might have their arms twisted to support it, but the party as a whole would probably reject it.”
On Sunday comments made by by the former Lib Dem president Tim Farron – a favourite to replace Clegg as leader – to the Mail on Sunday provoked a row within the party. Farron, who is considered to be on the left of the party, said the Lib Dems could suffer for a generation as a result of the decision to go into coalition with the Conservatives.
“In 2010, many people said: ‘I am not voting for you because of the [1970s] Lib-Lab pact’,” he said. “Just think what going into coalition with the Tories will do to our brand over the next generation.”
Paddy Ashdown, the former party leader, told BBC Radio 5 Live that while Farron was a friend, he sometimes wished “he showed his ambition a little less and judgment and patience a bit more”.
“His well-known ambition would be better served with a little more patience and a little more judgment,” he said, adding: “Judgment is not his strong suit.”
Polling released on Sunday by Opinium and the Observer puts the Liberal Democrats on 7% of the vote, down one point. A source close to Clegg told the paper that the Lib Dems could lose nearly half their seats and still remain a party of government.
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