Gordon Brown courting Paddy Ashdown

[Gilps]

Apparently

 

Prime Minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown offered former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown the Cabinet post of Northern Ireland secretary, the BBC has learned.

 

Lord Ashdown said the offer was made on Wednesday - after Lib Dem Leader Sir Menzies Campbell said no member of his party would join Mr Brown's government.

 

The peer said he could not have considered taking a Cabinet post without Sir Menzies' approval.

 

And he said that he would not have been in favour of the proposal anyway.

 

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said a meeting on Monday between Sir Menzies and Mr Brown included discussions about junior roles for Lord Ashdown and another Lib Dem peer, Baroness Neuberger.

 

'Good job'

 

He said the Lib Dem leader had not been aware that a direct offer of a Cabinet post was being made to Lord Ashdown.

 

I told him that I could not conceivably consider such a position unless my leader told me that he thought it was a good idea and even if he did, I didn't

 

Lord Ashdown

 

It would have been unprecedented in modern times for a government with a clear majority, as Labour has, to give a Cabinet job to a member of another party.

 

Education Secretary Alan Johnson, frontrunner to be Labour's next deputy leader, told the BBC he did not think a Liberal Democrat would sit in Cabinet for another 100 years.

 

But he said Lord Ashdown had done a good job in Bosnia, where he was the UN High Representative until 2005.

 

But Mr Johnson added: "whether there is a specific job for him to do in government is another matter".

 

Sir Menzies had ruled out any Lib Dem serving in a Brown Cabinet after Wednesday's Guardian newspaper reported Mr Brown was considering such an offer.

 

Lord Ashdown told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he had been personally offered the job by Mr Brown later on Wednesday.

 

'Mischief making'

 

In a statement to the programme he said: "It is true that Mr Brown suggested... that I might take a position in the Cabinet.

 

"I told him that I could not conceivably consider such a position unless my leader told me that he thought it was a good idea and even if he did, I didn't."

 

There has been long-running speculation that Lord Ashdown and Sir Menzies Campbell were close to joining Tony Blair's first Cabinet when he came to power in 1997.

 

The idea of Lib Dems sitting in a Labour Cabinet has always faced strong opposition among the faithful of both parties who are used to bitter political battles in local and national elections.

 

Charles Kennedy, who succeeded Lord Ashdown as Lib Dem leader, swiftly distanced the party from any talk of coalition or deals with Labour.

 

Lib Dem MP Phil Willis said he believed the offer was "mischief making" by Mr Brown.

 

He said Sir Menzies had been right to rule out Lib Dems taking jobs in a Brown Cabinet, saying they were "so fundamentally opposed to so many things the Labour Party is doing".

[John am Rhein]

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