Ming’s message to the Tories: my heart’s on the Left

‘I’m going to take my tie half-off,’ Sir Menzies Campbell announces. ‘Feel free to do so.’ It is a sweltering afternoon in his office, and there is no etiquette governing how men should strip off in such circumstances. I lower my tie knot an inch or so. He takes off his jacket. I follow suit. ‘There’s nothing I can take off,’ pipes up his press officer, sitting beside me in a dress. Sir Menzies blushes, stutters and moves straight on to the subject: his relaunch as leader of the Liberal Democrats.

He would bridle at this description, but this in effect is what is underway. Elected in March as a man of stature who would stop David Cameron’s advance, Sir Menzies appeared to lose his grip almost immediately, fluffing his lines at Prime Minister’s Questions. His old enemies muttered darkly about ousting him at the next party conference. Charles Kennedy pointedly refused to rule out a comeback.