Davey was quizzed on his post-election plans on the Question Time leaders special

The Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has refused to say whether he would enter into a coalition government after the general election. Davey was asked whether he would do so on the BBC’s leaders special of Question Time.

Responding to a question from the audience, Davey refused to say outright that he would or would not want to see the Liberal Democrats entering a coalition.

Davey said: “I’m not focussed on after the election, excuse me, but I’m not, because I want to make sure that every minute that I get like this – and I don’t often get it – is to put forward our Liberal Democrat values and our Liberal Democrat policies. And the more I get a chance to do that, I’m hoping I can persuade people to come over to us. And then the more Liberal Democrat MPs we have, the more influence we’ll have.”

At that point, the programme’s host Fiona Bruce interjected, saying: “But you have already admitted it’s unlikely that you’ll be prime minister given the polls. Do you not think people like the gentleman here have a right to know in that likely eventuality, would you ever consider forming a coalition or not?”

Davey again refused to say one way or the other. He said: “Look, what I’m being really clear to people about is that I want to make sure we maximise the Liberal Democrat number of MPs”.

Later, Bruce put to him that it was not a question he was willing to answer, to which he said: “I’ve been in politics a little while. I’ve seen a lot of Lib Dem leaders. And sometimes they’ve focussed on what happens after the election. And I’ve noticed that when they do that, they don’t focus on the job in hand, which is trying to win local champions and Liberal Democrats across the country, and I’m going to try and do that.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

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