BuzzFeed News does its best to end the Liberal Democrat leadership election
Vince Cable is standing for the Liberal Democrat leadership and, as far as we know, he is the only one of our MPs who is.
Jim Waterson from BuzzFeed News reckons there are still four Lib Dem MPs who have not formally ruled themselves out. So he set out to discover their intentions.
Stephen Lloyd was clear:
He immediately ruled himself out: "I'm for the wisdom and sagacity of Vince Cable."
So was Jamie Stone:
"Absolutely not. I'm lucky to here at all in the first place and I'm a strong support of Vince's."
And so was Christine Jardine:
"No," she explained. "It would have been good to have a contest but on the other hand I'm perfectly happy."
The only slight mystery surrounds Layla Moran's intentions:
Moran, the new MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, had written a piece offering to nominate any MP who wanted to prompt a leadership contest but had not formally ruled herself out.
So is she running? "Not as far as I'm aware," said the person manning the phone in her office.
I'm with Christine Jardine. It would have been good to have a contest.
But what we really need is a frank debate about the recent past and the future of the Liberal Democrats, and it is quite possible to have a leadership contest without having that. Stephen Bush has discussed this in the New Statesman.
Besides, a leadership contest, by my calculation, requires a minimum of two candidates and we do not seem to have that luxury.
Layla Moran would make an attractive candidate, even if - inevitably - we do not know a great deal about her views. But I suspect she would be wise not to stand this time.
So we are left with Jim Waterson's conclusion that we should declare Vince Cable our leader and go on holiday.
Labels: Christine Jardine, Jamie Stone, Layla Moran, Liberal Democrats, Stephen Lloyd, Vince Cable
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