Vince Cable denies acting disloyally following plot to oust Nick Clegg as Lib Dem leader

A poll commissioned by Lord Oakeshott suggests that the party, which took a beating on the last election, would do better without Mr Clegg at the helm

12:00 29 May 2014

Vince Cable has denied being disloyal to Nick Clegg after one of his closest allies attempted to get the latter removed as Liberal Democrat leader. 

 

A poll commissioned by Lord Oakeshott, who has already quit the party saying that it is “heading for disaster”, revealed that the party would do better if Mr Clegg would vacate his post. It led to numerous news outlets suggesting that Mr Cable was looking to take on the leading role.

 

Although Mr Cable admitted that he had knowledge about the polling, he denied knowing about the specific ones in Mr Clegg’s own constituency. 

 

"To be absolutely clear, I'm supporting the party leader. People are putting around the story that there is some division on that," Mr Cable told the BBC. "There is not and I've made it absolutely clear from the beginning of this week that there is absolutely no leadership issue. We have a united team. We clearly have to recover from the very difficult election. I'm part of that team and I will be supporting the leader of that."

 

Meanwhile, Mr Clegg was quoted by The Guardian: "I spoke to [Cable] yesterday. He clearly didn't know a thing about a poll being conducted in Sheffield. 

 

£Sheffield Hallam has been very, very critical about that happening and as I said yesterday I just think clearly we had some really, really bad election results last week. That of course quite rightly means there are a lot of questions and soul searching and debate about exactly what we do as a party over the next year."

 

The poll suggested the party was on course to lose Clegg's own Sheffield Hallam and three other seats - Cambridge, Redcar and Wells - next year unless there was a change at the top.