We've been under the impression that David Cameron first began to explore the idea of a coalition with the Lib Dems in those first few tentative days after 6 May 2010.
But a new book, Cameron: Practically a Conservative, suggests that Oliver Letwin, William Hague, Ed Llewellyn and George Osborne first met to discuss the idea as early as 18 April.
According to authors Francis Elliott and James Hanning, Cameron agreed to conversations about a hung Parliament among his top team but insisted "that he should be kept out of the discussions".
At Osborne's Notting Hill residence, the senior Conservatives looked at the Liberal Democrat manifesto, the Conservative manifesto and transcripts about everything Nick Clegg had promised should he come to power, the book alleges.
This would then become a very early draft of the coalition agreement, the authors say (in a Times extract today).
If true, it paints a fascinating picture for the Conservatives early election predictions. The idea that they were planning for a full coalition weeks before the election suggests that they were nowhere near as hopeful as they were stating publicly.
It also reinforces the idea that Labour started coalition negotiations with the Lib Dems on the back-foot. No such conversations are supposed to have taken place among senior Labour forces.
Comments
troll / May 21 2012 10:02am
"Mr Clegg sees his party’s destiny differently from Paddy Ashdown. His conception of the Lib Dems (not that he would put it like this) is much closer to that of David Owen’s conception of the SDP — a new party, a middle-class revolt against the system, one that appeals to Tories as well as the Left and fuses social liberalism, social justice and economic liberalism.
Behind this vision he has been able to unite some of the party’s brightest MPs — such as the education spokesman David Laws — and some of its best thinkers — people such as Julian Astle, the director of the liberal think-tank CentreForum. But he also has troops. The Lib Dems now have thousands of councillors. They are pragmatists and people of power. They have learnt how to co-operate with others, and this includes Tories."
- Daniel Finkelstein, April 21st 2010