David Maddox: Departure of Huhne has left the Lib Dems vulnerable and could even unravel the coalition

THIS week is “get the yellow bastards week” as one right-wing Tory put it to this writer, and it certainly seems that Tory backbenchers have decided it is time to launch an attack on subjects close to their Lib Dem coalition partners’ hearts.

It might explain why the week was heralded by a letter from 100 right-wing Tory backbenchers to Prime Minister David Cameron calling for an end to wind farm subsidies and demands from more of their number for the UK to pull out of European Union policing agreements.

Apparently it is pure coincidence that this two-pronged attack came so soon after the forced exit of the Lib Dems’ biggest champion in the Cabinet, Chris Huhne, after it was disclosed that he will go to court to face trial for allegedly passing on driving points.

As one Tory put it: “The austerity measures were put on ice as we popped the champagne corks for Huhne Friday.” He was the most disliked Lib Dem of them all and had managed to do the dirty on a long list of Tory Cabinet colleagues both privately and in public.

Having said that, a recent poll of Tories on ConservativeHome revealed that there was one Cabinet minister who was even less popular among them and that is the Conservatives’ own Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan.

But the departure of Huhne has already revealed that the Lib Dems have been left much weaker in the coalition.They essentially now lack anybody inside the government tent who is willing to offer forcible resistance to the Tories.

The defence on wind farms by Huhne’s replacement, Ed Davey, and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg rather inevitably fell flat yesterday, while the only palpable blow was struck by party president Tim Fallon, who is not a minister.

Certainly the Tory rightwingers, who have long considered David Cameron as being far too comfortable with the “foreign loving, soft on crime, sandal-wearing environmentalists”, are now making it clear they are “fed up”.

And with Huhne gone they are intent on pushing the coalition to the right and are clear that they are not willing to wait for the Tories to win a majority, assuming they do, at the next election.

It is possible that the departure of Huhne could be the point that the coalition finally began to fall apart. While Mr Huhne’s briefing against Tory Home Secretary Theresa May, chairman Baroness Warsi and Education Secretary Michael Gove, may not have done much for coalition relations, it did mean that there was a serious counterpoint balancing out the vocal Tory right. Without that counterpoint the Lib Dems may see less point in propping up what could look increasingly like a purely Tory government.

The one issue left which unites them is the business of tackling the economy, but for that to work it depends on the Osborne/Alexander austerity strategy succeeding, and there are precious few optimists who still believe that it will.