Reports suggest Miliband isn’t considering a coalition with the Lib Dems

It’s reported this morning in the Independent that in the event of another hung parliament – if Labour are the largest party – Miliband is unlikely to follow Cameron and lead the party into coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

Despite murmurings yesterday about the possibility of a Labour-Lib Dem coalition, off the back of what was most likely a lunch between four friends (who happened to be two Labour and two Lib Dem senior players), one of Miliband’s advisers has said such a deal is highly unlikely. Speaking to Independent they said, “I don’t think we would go for a coalition; it would probably be a looser arrangement”.

But what exactly would a ‘looser arrangement’ mean? Those close to Miliband are telling him that if Labour fail to win a majority, he should be willing strike a “confidence and supply” type agreement, where if he were to stand at the helm of a minority government, he could look to the Lib Dems as allies to gain a Commons majority on key votes.

But looking back on mistakes that were made in 2010 – where the groundwork for the ConDem coalition was in part laid by pre-election talks between the two parties – a Labour frontbencher has apparently admitted: “We are covering all the bases this time; we might need the Lib Dems”. This might indicate, as some Labour MPs think, that when push comes to shove, Miliband won’t reject a coalition with the Lib Dems after all.