Nick Clegg and David Cameron want to rein in attacks on each others’ parties amid fears that the public are being turned off by open Coalition in-fighting, the Evening Standard has learned.
The attempt comes as polls show voters see the Coalition as disunited following spectacular summer fall-outs over Lords reform and boundaries.
One senior minister admitted: “We have to be a bit less shrill, on both sides.” At a Chequers away-day on Monday — attended by the two leaders plus George Osborne, Danny Alexander, David Laws and Oliver Letwin — plans were agreed for a more positive message.
Instead of trying to negotiate a new coalition agreement mark II, there will be a mid-term review after conference, a candid “audit” of coalition achievements and admissions of failure.
Schools minister Mr Laws, a top ally of Mr Clegg, told the Standard: “We have to focus on the things that unite us rather than those which divide us.” Writing in The Sun, he said earlier: “I believe that both leaders have looked over the edge of the coalition cliff — and neither likes what he sees.”
In-fighting is continuing as the party conference season opens. Lib-Dem president Tim Farron said his side was open to a deal with Labour after the 2015 election. And former health minister Paul Burstow accused the Treasury of having “no sense of urgency” about the plight of pensioners forced to sell their homes to pay care costs.
