Nick Clegg has survived his most difficult conference yet. That’s good news for Labour

So Nick Clegg has left the stage at Lib Dem conference with the applause, well, not exactly thundering in his ears as such, but certainly trickling into them. It was a performance that started off well but petered out into a soporific shouting session that was entirely about Nick personally and the Lib Dems generally rather than the country more broadly. Lots of talk that might appeal to Lib Dem activists about smashing the two party system (although the AV referendum suggests he won’t/can’t) but little, I suspect, that will change the minds of those who consider the yellow party to be a duplicitous bunch of manifesto ignorers.

That said – Clegg has come through an incredibly tricky conference week strengthened, whilst his great rival Vince Cable has seen his stock fall. (Not quite Stalin to Mr Bean – the larks! – but certainly wise old sage to embarrassing Uncle Fester). And that’s all rather good news for Labour.

Vince Cable “doing well” in the Lib Dems and in the country at large for Labour is a good thing if you want to see a Labour-Lib Dem coalition. Cable replacing Clegg as leader would boost the Lib Dems but almost entirely at the expense of Ed Miliband and the Labour Party. It might secure a left(ish) coalition, but it would make a Labour majority government less likely – that’s why so many Tories like the idea.

Clegg shoring up his position in the Lib Dems, meanwhile, is good news for Labour. A Clegg-led Liberal Democrat party is fairly damaged goods for many of the voters who have switched from yellow to red in the past three years. With him at the helm there is a pretty low ceiling on how well they can do in 2015 – they certainly won’t be troubling the 20% mark. And that means those Lib to Lab switchers stay in the Labour column – as long as Ed Miliband provides something worth voting for.

Of course, a Clegg-led Lib Dems would be harder to form a coalition with, both politically – he feels no love for Labour – and because it would make the stomachs of Labour voters turn violently – not least mine. But today, despite a few pops at Labour, he was trying to keep his options open post-2015.

I hope the day never comes when Labour needs Clegg to get back into government – and his successful week makes that less likely – but the door is, at least now open, should we ever need to walk through it.