Lib Dems 'would snub coalition'

Four out of 10 Lib Dem voters would have not voted for the party if they knew about the coalition
12 April 2012

Four out of 10 Liberal Democrat voters would not have backed the party in the May General Election if they had known it would enter a coalition with the Conservatives, a poll suggests.

And 37% of Lib Dem voters quizzed for BBC2's Newsnight said they felt their party was being dishonest about cuts.

The survey of more than 1,000 voters, conducted last week, suggested that support for the coalition is far stronger among Conservatives than Lib Dems.

It came amid reports that senior Tory backbencher David Davis had privately referred to the alliance between David Cameron and Nick Clegg as the "Brokeback Coalition" - though the former shadow home secretary insisted this was misheard.

Overall, almost three-quarters of those who voted Tory or Lib Dem on May 6 told pollsters ComRes they would have done the same even if they knew it would lead to the formation of Britain's first coalition Government since the Second World War.

But while 86% of Conservatives would have voted in the same way if they had known Mr Cameron would end up at the head of a coalition administration, the figure dropped to just 58% among Lib Dems.

Some 60% of all those polled agreed the Lib Dems' identity had weakened since the party entered the coalition and that they no longer knew what it stood for, while 34% believed it had strengthened. Among Lib Dem voters, 53% believed their party's identity had been weakened, while 45% believed it had been strengthened.

Conservative supporters were more likely to say their party was honest about cuts in state spending (82%), compared with 58% of both Lib Dem and Labour voters.

Former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown told Newsnight that he believed the Tory-Lib Dem coalition was the only combination that had offered "a stable government with a clear majority in the House of Commons at a time of crisis".

He added: "Coalitions are usually about establishing the lowest common denominator between the two parties. This coalition's not - it's a genuinely reform-minded, a genuinely radical programme of reform."

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