Lib Dems must 'stop plotting' against Clegg, Ashdown says

Liberal Democrats plotting to remove Nick Clegg as party leader should "stop it now", Lord Ashdown has said.

He told the BBC that those seeking to oust Mr Clegg were motivated by "deep malice" and had made "a bad situation worse" after poor election results.

Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott resigned last week, warning that the party was "heading for disaster" under Mr Clegg.

But former party leader Lord Ashdown said Mr Clegg was a "fine leader" and leadership speculation was "damaging".

Mr Clegg has come under pressure after his party lost all but one of its 12 seats in the European Parliament and came fifth in the polls, with more than 300 activists calling for their leader to step down.

'Shakespearean villain'

Speculation over Mr Clegg's future came to a head last week when Lord Oakeshott leaked opinion polls suggesting the party would do better in marginal seats if Mr Clegg was replaced by Business Secretary Vince Cable or another leader.

Mr Clegg has said he intends to stay as leader despite ructions in the party

The peer, a long-time friend of Mr Cable, resigned soon afterwards, suggesting the party had lost its principles and values by going into coalition with the Conservatives.

Lord Ashdown, who led the party between 1989 and 1999, acknowledged that the last week had been damaging for the party.

"What has happened after those elections has made a bad situation worse," he told the Andrew Marr show.

"We now know there has been a plot of deep malice to try and remove the leader.

"I have got a very clear message for the party - anything you do now which is not... campaigning in the context of the next general election behind a fine leader and, I think, a fine record, is a distraction and a dangerous distraction - stop it now."

Lord Ashdown said Lord Oakeshott was "famous for making difficult days for the party more difficult" and his fellow peer had ignored warnings from him and others to stay disciplined and refrain from plotting.

"He did precisely what I thought he would do," he added. "I don't have to do anything to Matthew Oakeshott because I think the party has done it for him."

Asked whether he believed Mr Cable was involved in the plot to unseat Mr Clegg - something the business secretary has strongly denied - Lord Ashdown replied: "One of the rules of politics is choose your Iagos carefully."

Iago, the villain in William Shakespeare's play Othello, betrays his trusted friend and commander Othello.

'Intensely valuable'

Lord Ashdown also suggested his party could block tougher curbs on immigration floated by Tory ministers, including the deportation of people who cannot find work after being in the UK for six months.

"I would say [it is] unlikely we would not block them, unlikely that we would let them go through," he said, while adding that his party would have to look at anything that was put forward.

Immigration had been "intensely valuable" to the UK and its public services, he added, pointing out that there were thousands of immigrant doctors working in the NHS.

"The thing that needs to be preserved, which is at the heart of Europe and at the heart of the prosperity that springs out of Europe, at the heart of the concept, is the free movement of goods and people," he said.

"I am prepared to see any reform to the process of immigration within European countries provided that it does not limit the free movement of people."

Speaking on the same programme, Conservative defence minister Anna Soubry said it would be "churlish" not to recognise the success of UKIP, which wants much stricter curbs on immigration, in the European elections.

While the Conservatives may not be able to achieve their target of reducing annual net migration from more than 200,000 to less than 100,000 by May 2015, "that does not mean we are not right in trying to achieve that".

"We have reduced net migration. We know we have reduced that," she said.

"The real argument is making sure people understand the value of immigrants in our country but we have got to make sure we do things properly in a planned way."