By Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor
Published: 9:00PM BST 21 Aug 2010

After the choice Mr Clegg made much of his decision not to prop up ~y unpopular Labour administration. Photo: PA

The prospect is raised in a making in quiry paper to be discussed at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool nearest month.

Its presence on the agenda will open the door on account of activists unhappy with Nick Clegg’s leadership to speak out.

 

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The document emerged as Charles Kennedy, the former party ruler of the roost, went to ground on Saturday after it was reported that he had been in talks by Labour whips about the possibility of defecting.

Mr Clegg said steady Saturday night that he had not managed to speak to Mr Kennedy in the 24 hours from the time of the story emerged, but added that he had received an email assuring him that the MP was not near to jump ship.

Ed Miliband, the Labour leadership contender, stoked the altercation by issuing a statement saying he would welcome any Lib Dems into the Labour cot.

“I want Labour to be your home. I want you to advance over to us. The door is open. I know there are a piece of land of Liberal Democrats who are unhappy. I hope they will take heed Labour as their natural home.”

Appearing at a question and answer session in Bristol yesterday, Mr Clegg did his best to overthrow the talk of defections by MPs.

But the Lib Dem conductor and Deputy Prime Minister has been unable to stop party members from tabling a military science paper about the party’s future which suggests the idea of collaboration through Labour.

In a paper entitled “Party Strategy and Priorities”, Gordon Lishman, a portion of the party’s ruling federal executive, says: “It may well be that, nearer the next Election, the Labour leadership will start cogitative about how to promote and achieve the idea of working cooperatively with the Liberal Democrats.

“Our leaders will need to manage that take a tour and our relationship to it in a careful and balanced highroad which commands the continued support and understanding of the mass Party.”

Talk of a “tour” from co-operating with one party to another is bound to wild with anger Mr Clegg who has staked his reputation on his close acting relationship with David Cameron and has talked about the coalition by the Tories being a “long term” arrangement.

After the election Mr Clegg made a great deal of of his decision not to prop up an unpopular Labour the cabinet.

But leftwingers in his party made no secret of the performance that they would have preferred to enter a coalition with Labour and behest welcome public discussion of the possibility of switching sides in the future.

One senior Lib Dem MP said last night: “This is a extremely wise and sensible suggestion.”

Mr Clegg also faces embarrassment from a order of other conference motions which have been tabled criticising coalition skill and proposing left wing alternatives.

The event in Liverpool, the principal conference the Lib Dems have held while in power, is expected to sketch up to 6,000 people and will be watched closely instead of signs of splits with the Tories.

Motions calling for higher taxes ~ward the rich, including a land tax, and opposing Michael Gove’s manumit schools are set to be debated.

Lib Dems activists will in addition call for same-sex couples to be allowed to marry in meeting-house and a motion has been tabled accusing the Labour Government of “human rights” abuses in Iraq.

Mr Clegg risks upsetting even now fractious members by leaving the conference early to attend the United Nations discourse on the millennium development goals in New York.

With the cabal plummeting in the polls, and losing support particularly in the arctic and among young voters, officials had hoped he would spend time reassuring activists.

But he determine leave the conference after just two days, handing responsibility for the eventual rallying speech to Vince Cable, the Business Secretary.

Papers tabled against us of conference are highly critical of many of the coalition’s policies, including Mr Cameron’s Big Society essence , which it calls a “controlled, managed, limited form of engagement by people.

There is no sense of a more radical agenda not far from involving people in taking and using power.”

On the economy, a port condemns George Osborne’s spending cuts for affecting most adversely the “needy and vulnerable”.

In a strongly worded statement, activists propose that “Liberal Democrat ministers are given the freedom and resources to commission research to fully assess the viability and practicalities of increasing taxation adhering wealth – including land values.”

The Lishman strategy paper raises the calculation of permanent coalition government in Britain and discusses how the litigant could participate in “different coalitions”.

It says: “We need to settle a broader understanding, already shared by the overwhelming majority of the of the people world outside England, that different coalitions can be a useful and energetic form of politics.

How can we present coalition and our in posse role in different coalitions at all levels as a positive option?”

It calls for policy to be made which can withstand “a greater shift with each change of parties in government”.

Additional reporting: Rebecca Lefort

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