Ashdown refuses Cabinet role
Updated on 21 June 2007
Lord Ashdown refuses the job of Northern Ireland Secretary in Gordon Brown's government.
Gordon Brown may have wanted it, but the former Liberal Democrat leader, Paddy Ashdown, is not on his way into cabinet this time next week - and probably never.
Paddy Ashdown was chased by the media today, after being hotly pursued by the chancellor all week. He turned down the job of Northern Ireland secretary but he wasn't about to go public on his reasons.
The chancellor may be the most tribal of politicians but he's already hinted at a more inclusive style of government. Never mind the Lib Dems turned him down. His allies believe making the offer was all that was needed to show the broader-minded Brown.
How was it done?
At Monday lunchtime, Sir Menzies Campbell met Gordon Brown in the chancellor's commons room.
The Lib Dem leader discussed Brown's plan with his senior aides and decided to reject it.
Immediately afterwards Lord Ashdown told Sir Menzies the chancellor had asked to meet him.
On Wednesday morning, after the story began to leak, Sir Menzies's close friend Lord Kirkwood phoned Gordon Brown's ally Alistair Darling, to say the Lib Dems would not join a Labour government.
That afternoon, the chancellor went over Sir Menzies's head, meeting Lord Ashdown to offer him the job of Northern Ireland secretary directly. The same evening, Sir Menzies met his MPs to tell them what had happened.
"It's messy and damaging. You can't exaggerate how toxic it is for us to be associated with LibLab deals behind closed doors. It's awful."
You have to go back to Winston Churchill's war cabinet to find the last formal government of all the talents, or a coalition as it's more traditionally called. But the Lib Dems have worked informally with a Labour government before in the 1970s.
At Liberal Democrat headquarters officials say the episode has left a "very sour taste". MPs believe Gordon Brown has made a fool of their leader and undermined their attempts to woo Tory voters by distancing themselves from Labour.
One told me: "It's messy and damaging. You can't exaggerate how toxic it is for us to be associated with LibLab deals behind closed doors. It's awful."
But many Labour MPs don't want Lib Dem faces round the cabinet table. Publicly they're slavishly loyal to the incoming leader leader. But privately one Brown ally told me a pact with the Lib Dems was "ludicrous". Another backbencher said he was "astonished". And a third had called Gordon Brown's aides to ask "what the hell is going on. It's a complete anathema to me. There's plenty of talent within the Labour party itself."
Lord Ashdown's reveals in his diaries that Gordon Brown has in the past blocked a deal between the two parties.
In December 1996, Gordon Brown told the former Liberal Democrat leader:
"I am really frightened about factionalism in politics and really frightened about running a Cabinet in which individuals would have to run back to their own sections or groups to get validation for what they are doing."
And in January that year, Lord Ashdown wrote:
"Gordon Brown is a surprising opponent to the whole project. He believes that we (the Liberal Democrats) will diminish their appeal."
A standing ovation this morning proved Tony Blair still appeals to his own cabinet, even after the ups and downs of a decade in power. Gordon Brown told his friend and rival his future achievements would be because we are standing on your shoulders. And the environment secretary joked that he had been late leaving cabinet because it had taken so long to cross the floods of tears trailing down Downing Street.
The chancellor's letting it be known tonight he hasn't given up on his newly inclusive approach. He was intent on listening to business people at a green conference today. And his aides say don't be surprised if there are one or two city types invited to become ministers next week.
