Vince Cable ‘courted’ by Miliband, fuelling speculation of Lib-Lab deal

There are rumours that the 69-year-old Business Secretary has been the subject of a charm offensive by the opposition.

He is also viewed by some as the man most likely to lead the Liberal Democrats in the 2015 election.

Speculation on a “Lab-Lib love in” has increased after Mr Miliband said he is in regular text message contact with Mr Cable, who was a Labour Party councillor in Glasgow in the 1970s. Mr Miliband has said if the Business Secretary wanted to talk to his party about the future then he would be “open for business”.

But Mr Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, who has been weakened by the failure to reform the House of Lords, branded speculation over a switch of party as ridiculous, while on the campaign trail in Cardiff.

He said: “Politicians talk to each other across party lines and the one thing I’ve never been is neurotically tribal.

“It’s not my job to tell Vince Cable who he texts and it’s no surprise to me that politicians from different parties talk to each other. This story is just mischief-making – simply because of the fact it’s Vince Cable and Ed Miliband.

“It shows quite how much politics has become schoolboy politics at a time when people are crying out for solutions in getting the economy going.

“Quite frankly, these claims the Business Secretary is being courted by Labour are ridiculous.”

Mr Clegg was hoping to bolster the chances of the Liberal Democrats’ by-election candidate Bablin Molik.

She is contesting the Cardiff South and Penarth seat, which is to become vacant as outgoing Labour MP Alun Michael will stand in the election for crime commissioner in November.

The Liberal Democrats face an uphill task – Labour won the seat in 2010 with 38.9 per cent of the vote – but Mr Clegg has gone on the attack.

“Alun Michael clearly has had his head turned by what he considers to be the greater glamour of being a crime commissioner.

“He has dumped his constituents because he clearly is no longer interested in serving them. I have to say that’s a reflection of the way Labour has taken people for granted locally.

“You can just see it in the actions of the local Labour council. As soon as they have got into power the first thing they do is shower their councillors with extra money.

“It’s also a great pity, after a few short months, they also have not come clean with the people of Cardiff about plans for a congestion charge in Cardiff, which they barely mentioned at election time.”

In response, Labour MP and shadow Welsh secretary Owen Smith was scathing of Mr Clegg, accusing of him of hypocrisy.

“Being lectured on letting the electorate down by Nick Clegg is so absurd as to be laughable.

“This is the man who sold an entire country down the river by propping up a vicious Tory  government in Westminster, and blithely enabling savage cuts to police numbers, Tax credits and support for the most vulnerable.

“That he slipped into Cardiff for an event at ‘a secret location’, launched the usual volley of Lib Dem smears and spin, then scarpered is a measure of the man – and illustrates how desperate the Lib Dems in Cardiff have become.”

However, Mr Clegg insisted he was confident that in the long run people would see his party “did the right thing” in forming a coalition government with the Conservatives in Westminster.