Sarah Teather’s exit is just another growing pain for the Lib Dems

Sarah Teather’s decision to stand down at the 2015 election won’t surprise many people who know what a battle the Lib Dem MP would have had to hold onto her Brent Central seat. Her majority is only 1,345. But her public reason for standing down is interesting, too, even if some may suspect that the battle for Brent held more sway. Teather is an example of the Liberal Democrat party getting used to government, and, in the politest way possible, growing up. Her anger at some of the party’s policies has led to her feeling ‘desolate’, she told the Observer:

‘If you have fallen out with your party, if you hate your party leader, you can do it, but if you haven’t fallen out with your party leader, and you respect him and think he is basically a decent bloke, and you really know you are a Lib Dem, it is terribly difficult.