Clegg may have cojones but Lib Dem fortunes hang in the balance
At least Nick Clegg can be confident of one thing: his wife credits him with some “cojones” – even if many in his party seriously doubt their existence, along with the backbone required to stand up to his Conservative coalition partners.
The ballsy interjection from Miriam Gonzalez Durantez at her husband’s speech on parental leave (men who share the childcare have “the most cojones”, according to La Gonzalez) couldn’t have been better timed. Because as the European elections approach, Clegg is being urged by his MPs and peers to man up – or face electoral obliteration.
The Liberal Democrat leader launched his campaign today, with a staunch defence of UK membership of the European Union. The party’s president Tim Farron has warned the party could lose all its MEPs in next month’s elections. The Lib Dems’ poll ratings are atrocious, and have worsened since Clegg locked horns with Nigel Farage in the TV debates on Europe.
A YouGov poll for the European elections put the Lib Dems on 10 per cent – trailing far behind Labour, Ukip and the Conservatives. If the results are as dire as expected, there will inevitably be rumblings both about Clegg’s leadership and his party’s role in government. There will be those who argue that an early divorce is now the only way to save face and seats at the general election next year.
The Cleggies shrug all this off, pointing out that Labour and the Tories are so close in the polls, another coalition is a real possibility, with the Lib Dems once again as kingmakers. The leader’s many opponents think this smacks of dangerous complacency. “You’re in a far better position to be the kingmaker if you’ve got 40 seats rather than 20,” says one.
And when you look at the number of MPs not affiliated to one of the three main parties – the Democratic Unionists, the Scottish Nationalists, and sundry independents to name but a few – if the Lib Dems lose too many of their 56 seats at the next election they will be of little use as a coalition partner if they can’t muster the numbers to outvote the minor parties.
There are currently 34 MPs who are neither Tory, Labour or Lib Dem. According to Electoral Calculus, based on current polls the Lib Dems would win 19 seats. That doesn’t look so attractive to a potential suitor, whether Tory or Labour.
So when Clegg says, as he did earlier this month, that he aims to be leader until at least 2020, he’s clearly either got some hefty ‘cojones’ or a whole lot of chutzpah.
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