Glass half empty for Liberal Democrat voters

Tuesday, 27 July 2010 12:00 AM

By Rebecca Burns

Liberal Democrat voters have rejected the coalition, according to a poll conducted last week.

Four in ten people who voted Lib Dem at the election would not have voted for their party if they had known a coalition would be the outcome, in contrast to just 14% of Conservative voters.

The poll, conducted by ComRes for BBC2's Newsnight programme, appears to confirm Liberal Democrat unease over policy compromises with the Conservatives.

But former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown told Newsnight: "Coalitions are usually about establishing the lowest common denominator between the two parties. This coalition's not - it's genuinely reform-minded, a genuinely radical programme of reform. So this far, it's going far better than I imagined it could."

Lord Ashdown's words were not reflected in the results of the survey, which found 60% of those polled thought the Lib Dems' party identity had been weakened by the coalition.

Former Tory chairman Lord Tebbit echoed less optimistic sentiments about the coalition government. According to the chairman, the coalition was in danger of paying "too high a price for co-operation in solving short-term difficulties".

Lord Tebbit added: "We have to be careful that we do not slide into making constitutional reforms to please our Lib Dem colleagues, which are of infinitely greater long-term importance than some of the short-term economic decisions in which we need their help".

The survey polled 1,009 people from July 23rd to July 25th.

Tags:
• legal and constitutional
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• liberal democrats
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• party politics