Oakeshott quits Lib Dems with Clegg 'disaster' warning

Lord Oakeshott has quit the Lib Dems with a warning the party is "heading for disaster" under Nick Clegg.

The peer, a former Treasury spokesman for the party who is seen as close to Vince Cable, said the party had lost its "roots, principles and values".
He quit after it emerged he commissioned polls suggesting the party would do better without Mr Clegg.

Mr Cable has denounced his actions but the peer said the business secretary knew about the poll and its findings.
Mr Cable, who is currently in China on government business, said he knew Lord Oakeshott was paying for private opinion polls in Mr Cable's Twickenham constituency and some other areas as part of the party's general election planning

But he had "absolutely no knowledge" of polls being carried out in Mr Clegg's Sheffield Hallam constituency or the Inverness constituency of Treasury minister Danny Alexander.

"I criticised them [the polls] very seriously yesterday but I am here to do a job of work promoting British exports and jobs and that is what I intend to get on with," he said.

He described Lord Oakeshott as a "longstanding friend" and said he regretted "we've finished up in this way," adding he hoped the peer would reconsider his resignation from the party.
Mr Clegg has accused Lord Oakeshott of seeking to "undermine" the Lib Dems, and senior party sources have told the BBC the peer had been "disowned" after a "shambolic attempt at a coup" and for "pursuing his own malicious agenda".

The row comes after the Lib Dems' dire performance in European elections.
Mr Clegg has faced calls to step down from 300 activists while a number of constituency associations, including Liverpool and Cambridge, are to hold meetings to discuss their leader's future.

'Unacceptable'
 
Lord Oakeshott said he was leaving the party "with a heavy heart" and issued a warning to the Lib Dems about their future prospects.
"I am sure the party is heading for disaster if it keeps Nick Clegg; and I must not get in the way of the many brave Liberal Democrats fighting for change," he said.

  Lord Oakeshott is a longstanding critic of Nick Clegg

 

He suggested that under Mr Clegg's leadership the Lib Dems had become a "split-the-difference centre party, with no roots, no principles and no values" rather than a "radical, progressive party".
He said the message behind Mr Clegg's "dire approval ratings year after year in all national polls, and Thursday's appalling council and European election results, is crystal-clear.

"We must change the leader to give Liberal Democrat MPs their best chance to win in 2015."
He added: "I am sorry I have so upset and embarrassed my old friend Vince Cable and that we were not able to talk before he issued yesterday's statement from China."