Stephen Tall

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 500 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

LDV asked: Which backbench Lib Dem MPs who are not current ministers would you like to see promoted? (Please write-in.) (NB: I’ve set the cut-off for inclusion in this list at 5 individual mentions.)

Jo Swinson 77
Julian Huppert 73
David Laws 66
Tim Farron 25
Duncan Hames 21
Simon Hughes 19
Andrew George 16
Tessa Munt 16
Charles Kennedy 12
Chris Huhne 12
Jenny Willetts 12
Tom Brake 10
Adrian Sanders 9
Greg Mulholland 9
Stephen Williams 9
John Pugh 8
Malcolm Bruce 8
Stephen Gilbert 8
Ian Swales 6
Martin Horwood 6
Norman Lamb 6
John Leech 5
John Thurso 5
Menzies Campbell 5

There’s little doubt which three Lib Dem backbench MPs are the clear favourites of our sample of party members to merit promotion to government posts: Jo Swinson, Julian Huppert and David Laws each received write-in mentions from approximately one-quarter of the c.280 members who responded to this question.

Some respondents were conflicted about naming any backbenchers for government posts: “keep them untainted with the future in mind!” was one refrain that echoed. A couple of those who feature above — notably, Julian and Tim Farron — were also named as individuals whose current roles (fighting the Draft Communications Bill and being Party President respectively) were too important to see them lost to a mid-ranking government post.

Besides Julian, Duncan Hames (aka Mr Jo Swinson) and Tessa Munt were the highest-rated of the 2010 entrants. Chris Huhne’s return was seen by those who named him as contingent on being acquitted of the ‘perverting the course of justice’ charges he faces.

* Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, a Research Associate for the liberal think-tank CentreForum, and also writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.