Tim Walker

Mandrake

Liberal Candidates

Disproportionately represented in the House of Lords before last July’s General Election – when they had just 11 MPs in the Commons – the Liberal Democrats have some making up to do now they have 72 MPs. Leader Ed Davey does not, however, appear spoilt for choice when it comes to finding suitable candidates for the upper chamber.

With Mark Pack hardly blazing a trail in the Lords following his surprise ennoblement last December – the former party president had always described himself as a “backroom boy” and was best known for being the ‘brains’ behind Jo Swinson’s unsuccessful bid for glory – Davey feels he needs to find some more powerful voices.

Mandrake hears he is thinking about kitting Sarah Teather out in ermine but, while seldom if ever short of an opinion, the former Children and Families Minister in the Coalition Government is a controversial figure in her party, not least because she voted against same-sex marriage in 2013, and was instrumental, with Davey, in removing the popular Charles Kennedy as leader in 2006.

Davey has not ruled out ennobling Swinson even though it will bring back unhappy memories of how she had pushed for the General Election in 2019. While she talked about how she was in with a chance of becoming PM, she ended up helping to deliver a landslide for Boris Johnson and losing her seat – and those of a great many of her parliamentary colleagues.