Reeves resignation is bad news for Clegg

The departure of his senior aide Richard Reeves is a major blow to Nick Clegg. Reeves, a relative newcomer to the Lib Dems, was far less focused on party structures than many of those in Clegg’s circle and instead concentrated on the party’s long term electoral prospects. Reeves’s view was that there was a space in British politics for a party that was classically liberal on economics and socially liberal on other matters. He wanted to turn the Lib Dems into a party that was as comfortable in government as in opposition.

There will be those who want to read something political into Reeves’s departure. But based on conservations I have had, I am convinced, as Patrick Wintour who broke this story is, that Reeves’s departure is more down to his desire to bring his half-Americans kids up in the USA rather than anything else.

But there is an irony that the news of Reeves’s departure has broken in the middle of Steve Hilton’s leaving do.