A Liberal Democrat official has confirmed that Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg had a meeting in the offices of the foreign ministry on Sunday afternoon….
A Liberal Democrat official has confirmed that Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg had a meeting in the offices of the foreign ministry on Sunday afternoon.
According to Reuters the Lib Dem official said the Brown-Clegg talk was amicable and Conservative leader David Cameron had been informed of the meeting.
Labour’s hierarchy have been criticised for failing to do more in the early days immediately after Thursday’s election result after it became clear that the Conservatives had no overall majority. It also emerged on Sunday afternoon that although both the Lib Dems and the Tory’s had held meeting with their parliamentary group of MPs, Labour had not.
Gordon Brown returned to Scotland for a family break as the other leaders were holding discussions, his wife Sarah is reported to have ‘tweeted’ that they enjoyed a relaxing family gathering with some wine. The Labour leader was filmed going to church in his home town of Kirkcaldy and the family only returned to London later on Sunday.
The meeting with Mr Clegg may have been a last gasp attempt by Gordon Brown to remain PM. However even if a deal were to be reached with the Lib Dems it is unlikely that they would countenance Brown staying on.
Many media commentators have expressed surprise that Labour didn’t act sooner in order to woo Nick Clegg. Labour’s Scottish branch even rejected an offer from SNP leader Alex Salmond for a ‘progressive alliance’ that may have led to Labour staying in power at Westminster and kept the Tories out.
The general election in Scotland saw Labour attract 1 million votes and the SNP half a million. The Scottish result is widely accepted to have been caused by a mass anti-Tory tactical vote from Scots who still remember the social devastation caused by the last Conservative government.