Lib Dems overwhelmingly want to work with Labour – not the Tories. But should we want to work with them?

More than half of the Lib Dem membership want to work with Labour – not the Tories – after the General Election, a new poll has found. The polling, carried out by Lib Dem Voice, found that 55% of Lib Dem members want to have a working relationship with Labour after the next election, either in a coalition (40%) or through “supply and confidence” (15%).

To put that in contrast, only 18% of Lib Dem members want a relationship of any kind with the Tories after the next election.

Obviously Labour will be aiming for an outright majority at the next election (and only need a relatively small lead over the Tories to achieve that), but as some of the polls begin to narrow, the debate in the party over how we should approach the Lib Dems is likely to hot up. What the party will need to weigh up – in the event that Labour are the largest party but lack a majority – is on one hand the need to form a workable government, but at the same time, the obvious downside of a “new” government featuring Lib Dem ministers from a government who have just been kicked out.

Personally, I think there’s a great risk that keeping the Lib Dems in coalition even if their vote has halved is a sure fire way of further eroding trust in politics, and securing for a generation the idea that “they’re all the same”…