Nick Clegg is Gordon Brown's only hope

One of the biggest themes of the new year has been Labour overtures to the Liberal Democrats. While the Tories hope to govern on their own the only realistic hope of Labour staying in power is a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

As Paul Goodman has already written, every wavering Tory voter needs to know that a vote for the Liberal Democrats may let Labour in by the backdoor.

On this morning's Today programme Nick Clegg was quick to attack the Conservatives (unfairly parroting the Labour line that Tory policy favours the wealthy).

It is the natural instinct of Liberal Democrats to favour Labour.  Surveys reported in this morning's Independent confirms that:

"Mr Clegg would have to win approval for his tactics from senior colleagues and a special conference of rank-and-file party members. Their centre-left sympathies were made clear in a poll last week which asked activists to choose between Mr Brown and Mr Cameron for Prime Minister after the election. Their verdict was definitive: 58 per cent named the Tory leader as the worst option, with 42 per cent for Mr Brown. The result mirrored a poll of Liberal Democrat councillors in the autumn, when nearly twice as many said they would like their party to support Labour (31 per cent) in a hung Parliament against just 16 per cent for the Tories."

Tim Montgomerie