Clegg to be Cameron’s deputy
Wednesday 12th May 2010, 8:36AM BST.
Liberal Democrat leader and “kingmaker” Nick Clegg will become Deputy Prime Minister and join four of his MPs in the UK’s first coalition Cabinet for 65 years.
George Osborne will also be Chancellor of the Exchequer and William Hague Foreign Secretary in the new Conservative/Lib Dem administration, Downing Street confirmed.
Ahead of the Cabinet’s historic first meeting later today, senior Conservative sources confirmed the two men were retaining the roles they held in the Tory shadow cabinet, scotching widespread speculation that the Chancellor’s job might go to Kenneth Clarke or even Lib Dem Vince Cable.
Conservatives Liam Fox and Andrew Lansley have also reportedly been given the posts of Defence Secretary and Health Secretary respectively – both keeping their briefs from opposition – with Lib Dem education spokesman David Laws also apparently stepping up into the role of Schools Secretary.
Mr Clegg’s former chief of staff Danny Alexander is also said to have been made Scottish Secretary.
The MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey won one of 11 seats for the Lib Dems in Scotland, compared to just one for the Conservatives.
As for the popular Mr Cable – a clear winner in the televised Chancellors’ Debate before the election – there was speculation that he will be appointed Mr Osborne’s number two as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, perhaps with responsibility for business and banking.
One glaring omission last night was the identity of the new Home Secretary.
It was looking increasingly like the Tories’ shadow Chris Grayling had missed out on the crucial position, with his Lib Dem rival Chris Huhne and Conservative shadow education spokesman Michael Gove being tipped for the role.
Mr Grayling attracted controversy in the run-up to the election for suggesting that people who ran bed and breakfasts in their homes should have the right to turn away homosexual couples.
The need to give jobs to Liberal Democrats means some members of Mr Cameron’s shadow cabinet are likely to be awarded less senior jobs than they had been expecting in the run-up to the General Election, providing the first big test of his man-management abilities as PM.
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Well it seems the only decent party was the labour party . They NEVER SOLD OUT FOR POWER. This will never work and as for clegg and his 5 judas friends what a total disgrace his and their careers will be short lived.
This is not a tory victory and will be short lived why did cameron not go straight back to an election in months?? because he knew he would lose you can only fool so many people all the time for some of the time .Lib dems are turning left to labour in droves and clegg the turn coat is to blame for the demise of the liberal democrt party . Gordon played a blinder and most people cant see it yet.
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And here we have it, a load of unsubstantiated twaddle. Of course Labour didn’t try to get into bed with the Lib Dems did they. No it wasn’t a Tory victory, they merely took almost 100 seats off Labour, the highest gains and the highest losses in political history, but that is small beer in your book isn’t it. Also where is the proof (apart from the bleating of one disillusioned “unseated” Lib Dem ex MP) that people are “turning left to Labour in droves”, utter fantasy, it was almost 100% support for Clegg from his parliamentary party and the parties Federal Political Committee. And Gordon played some blinder, so much so, he was responsible for the greatest loss of Labour seats in history, such a blinder that he had to resign. You need to get real Andrew or come down to earth from the clouds. The loser finally lost big time.
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Looks like its time for Nick Clegg to play second fiddle to Thatchers love child – he must be so proud!
As an ex lib dem voter of 16 years I am ashamed that I ever voted for these turncoats and will never trust them again.
Roll on the next election and both parties being sent back to the political wilderness.
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It could be the best result if it works!
The majority of voters wanted rid of Labour but were not convinced by either of the other two parties, this way we get a Conservative government balanced and controlled by the LibDems.
Brown had no choice Lab Lib pact did not stack up to enough seats, meaning they would have had to bring in the smaller nationalist parties who would be voting on English matters that were already devolved to their own Parliaments.
Brown should have gone on Friday when he lost the election instead he (or perhaps it was Mandleson) tried to connive a continuation of Labour in power with the promise of a delayed resignation.
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Not at all constitution says he(brown) is to ensure he hands over to a stable guv cameron had a minority far from stable. The idea of a lab/lib was to much to expect as they would not sell out so cheap. The other reason could be brown forced cameron in to this coalition and at least cameron cant be as brutal as his party wish to be, time will tell. I feel another labour guv is on its way with milliband in charge, this coalition are gong to implement some changes which will hit all uk households hard and the british public are a fickle lot especialy when they start loseing there homes, possesions,jobs, etc etc etc .
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Ken
Yes, Coalitions in this country have a great record of working dont they?
A majority of voters didnt want the Conservatives either you conveniently seem to forget that?
I think its pretty obvious that if Nick Clegg had been more up front about his intentions to form a coalition with the Tories the voting would have been a lot different in this election.
I think your final comment is a bit one sided – Brown followed the rules of our constitution to the letter while waiting to see whether the Lib Dems and Tories came up with a coalition (with the option of forming one himself if they didnt). A minority government was never going to last five minutes, of course you would never actually hear a Tory admit that!
Either way I am sure we will have another election fairly shortly when the Tories and Lib Dems finally realise how little they actually have in common. I imagine this little episode has done wonders for the membership of the Labour party. Clegg really has sold the Lib Dems down the river!
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The point was not that Brown should stay in office until he could hand over the leader of the largest party but that the Labour party – again I suspect Mandelson – attempted to stay in power by offering a delayed resignation of the PM.
Whether they believed Cameron could have formed a stable government is not the point, Brown obviously could not, he was no longer the leader of the largest party in the commons and even a coalition with the LibDems still left him short, this was known on Friday. Yet instead of taking the honourable course and resigning they tried to prevent the largest party from concluding a deal that would potentially offer a stable government.
I agree the present government has a big problems which is why I would have advised the Tories not to try to form this coalition. However had Labour managed to form a rainbow coalition they would have changed the voting system to ensure that a conservative government was no longer possible, already by the last attempt they have saddled the Tories with a 50 seat deficit this need addressing before the next election.
Yes quite none of the parties really enthused the voters, however by no stretch of the imagination can it be claimed the voters wanted Labour to continue in office and to be honest no one has actually got the government they preferred.
I would not accuse Clegg of being dishonest, he clearly said that he would not go into a Lib Lab pact if Brown lost the election and remained as PM also he did not rule out the possibility of doing a deal with the Conservatives. After all we did know the polls were indicating a hung parliament, so these things were in the public domain before the election.
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Ken
Clegg did not say anything of the sort, he was actually very vague and evasive of the question. If Clegg was as upfront about a coalition with the Tories as you state – why exactly are so many Lib Dem voters so upset by this deal?
Simply put the Tories did not win and neither did Labour, the constitution states that Brown is Prime Minister until someone comes up with a viable government – the Tories could not do that on their own but as soon as they formed a viable coalition Brown resigned immediately.
Of course the conservatives never wanted to form a coalition and would have preferred to have a minority government but that would have been disastrous for this country and Brown was totally correct and within the letter of the rules to take the stance he did.
To my mind Brown’s actions were totally honourable and he certainly doesnt need to take lessons from former members of the Bullingdon Club!
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I think you will find that Clegg did say he would not support Labour in the event that they did not gain the most seats and if Brown remained PM – suggest you look at April 27th news. He also pointedly refused to say he would not work with the Tories – suggest same date.
Trying to rewrite history so soon after the event!
Personally I think Brown was honourable and has had a bad press, but I do not think those behind new labour are, or were in this instance, again I mention Mandelson. They clearly intended to try to stop the largest party by offering a delayed resignation.
I do not know if the governing party has the power to remain in office even though they have lost the majority of seats and cannot create majority by other means in that case the honourable thing to do would be to resign, not to try to cling to power by subterfuge and interfering in the negotiations of the leading party.
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There is speculation that Mr Osborne’s Number 2 will be a Cable.
I don’t find anything remotely funny about that because I went to Maturity Evening Classes.
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