Friday, December 09, 2005

Charles Kennedy to quit in the spring?

I am watching This Week on BBC1, and Andrew Neil has just told us he has it on good authority that Charles Kennedy will resign as leader at the Lib Dem Spring Conference next year.

I would not bet too much money on that rumour. But an article on the Guardian website last week said that if Kennedy does go soon the two front-runners will be Mark Oaten and Simon Hughes.

Come to think of it, I wrote that article.

If that were the choice we were presented with, there would be powerful lobbies wanting Ming Campbell to stand and wanting to skip a generation to Nick Clegg - not that he is a lot younger than Kennedy.

Would all this be such a disaster for the party? Maybe not, given the way in which the Tory contest caught the public imagination. But I am not holding my breath.

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