Tuesday, September 28, 2010

John Leech and abstaining on the Coalition agreement

I was puzzled by John Leech's declaration at a Labour Conference fringe meeting today that he had abstained when Liberal Democrat MPs had voted on the Coalition agreement.

Perhaps I missed an earlier revelation, but this is the first I have heard of John abstaining in this vote. If he was going to make the matter public, wouldn't it have been better to have told his constituents in Manchester Withington or his fellow Liberal Democrats first?

I am also puzzled by what John wrote on his blog on 18 May in his first posting after the general election:
By ruling out any coalition the Labour Party guaranteed that the Conservatives would be in Government. As such there were only 2 options – a Tory minority Government putting forward a Tory agenda, or a coalition Government where the Lib Dems could help to shape the direction of the Government and ensure a progressive agenda for Britain. So there was really no choice.
Quite right.

But if there was "really no choice", why didn't John vote in favour of the Coalition agreement?

3 comments:

NoetiCat said...

I didn't catch the whole conversation but @dazmando accosted John Leech at the upstairs Hilton bar on the Saturday of LD Conference and Leech told us then that he was one of the three who abstained. From what I recall he mentioned worrying about his future electoral fortunes fighting Labour in his area.

Richard Gadsden said...

I thought a number of MPs weren't at the key meeting so are counted as abstentions

dazmando said...

heres what John said to me at the conference with NoetiCat http://bracknellblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/john-leech-mp-told-me-he-abstained-from.html