Liberal Democrat Conference: Activists warn against 'cuddling up' to Labour: Party divided over change on policy of 'equidistance' from both major parties

LIBERAL Democrat councillors fear that 'cosying up' to Labour will damage morale among party activists and the prospect of winning more town hall seats in the local elections next year.

The view that Paddy Ashdown should preserve a distinct Liberal Democrat image and leave overtures to other parties until after a general election was the overwhelming view of councillors and non-councillors at the Brighton conference yesterday.

'If we start moving closer to Labour and saying they are now electable, then why don't I join the Labour Party?' Terry Miller, Liberal Democrat group leader on Broxtowe District Council and a Nottinghamshire county councillor, said.

'We are not a socialist party and I really do not see Labour as having moved a great deal. To talk about aligning ourselves with Labour does a disservice to those people who voted for us.'

Much is being made at the conference of the record 4,620 council seats held by the party - many of them won from Labour in towns in the Midlands and the North.

Tony Greaves, secretary of the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors, said that Mr Ashdown was well aware of their concerns. 'You can't start cuddling up to the Labour Party in places like Sheffield and Liverpool where you are mortal enemies,' he said.

Critical of Baroness Williams and other SDP founders as 'important to the media for what they used to be and fixated by what is happening in the Labour Party', Mr Greaves hoped that Mr Ashdown would say nothing at all about positioning the party.

'If he does, he ought to make clear we are going to fight this election as an independent party with no commitment to doing deals with anybody after the election,' he said.

A veteran 'activist', Mr Greaves said: 'There are no quick fixes and whatever the party does nationally it should not prejudice the long-term growth of support on the ground.'

Julian Rudd, a young party member from Wimbledon, said he wanted Mr Ashdown 'to talk about us, not the Labour Party'. The party should not be compromising its views, he said. 'We have got to be ourselves and give people a positive reason for voting for us, not somebody else.'

But Simon Hughes, MP for Southwark and Bermondsey, whose traditional opponent is always Labour, defended the move away from 'equidistance' from both of the two major parties. He said: 'The one thing in my view that is ruled out is we and the Tories doing a deal. I don't know yet whether we could be in government with Labour.'

In common with the Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Hughes said the first task was to ensure that their party's separate identity was clearly established so that there was no 'muddling' between the Liberal Democrats and Labour. He said the electorate 'would not understand' if the Liberal Democrats campaigned hard in the election only to prop up a minority Tory government.

This view had been strongly reinforced earlier in the day by Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, the party's leader in the Lords, who made it clear that his own preference would be for a Liberal Democrat- Labour coalition even if the Conservative Party was the biggest single one in a hung Parliament.

Pressed by Sir David Frost on BBC 1 yesterday to say whether he would still opt for talks with Labour 'if the Conservatives were slightly the biggest party', Lord Jenkins said: 'I don't think that's the decisive factor. I think the Conservatives . . . as a political organisation have had more than enough continuous power.'

(Photograph omitted)

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