Nick Clegg: the fake Lib Dem leader?

It's been a bad week for Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

He provoked sniggers, nicknames like 'Commons Casanova' and predictable outrage from the Daily Mail when he claimed in a GQ interview to have slept with around 30 women before meeting his wife (which, to be fair, sounds like one hell of a week). While a trifle embarrassing, Clegg must be praying to the heavens requesting that all his problems be as trivial as that. Especially - as detailed by the Spectator - now that his very leadership is being called into question.

The Independent On Sunday has taken a look at the Lib Dem leadership contest, and claims that - had 1,300 postal votes not been dismissed for arrving late - the numbers would have worked out in favour of Clegg's rival Chris Huhne. Clegg has naturally responded with all guns blazing ... or, after the seven days of tabloid ordeal he's had to put up with, more likely mumbling in vague protest and waving a catapult around. He states simply: "the story has no foundation or fact whatsoever".

None of which brave-face-hoisting will do much to salvage his reputation. Branded 'calamity Clegg' by Huhne during their leadership battle, it's a title that seems the very essence of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The question on the party's lips: can it get any worse for the man?

Written by C J Davies on 6 Apr 2008 7:22 PM. Permalink