At the Welsh Liberal Democrat conference earlier this month Nick Clegg made the following comment.
And of course we’ve even had a Liberal Democrat celebrity flying the Welsh flag in the depths of the Australian jungle! Now that’s one forestry disaster we’re not responsible for!
This comment was then reported as the lead paragraph later in a post by Mark Pack with the following comment :
Nick Clegg’s speech to the party’s Welsh conference contained much in the way of summarising the party’s current official position on politics and government priorities – and also a reference to Lembit Opik. His departure from the Commons was made the subject of a joke rather than a cause of regret ….
While everyone knows Lembit is quite happy for a laugh to be had at his expense, it is essential that Nick presents a strong and mature image in the press for the benefit of himself and the party as a whole. Fair criticism from Mark and others is welcomed – but it is not helpful when party members use the leader’ s comments as the express basis of a negative evaluation of Lembit. By contrast, Tim Farron made some jocular comments of a similar vein in his President’s speech at Party conference, which were both funny and fitting.
It is the duty of the party leader to hold the organisation together and not attack other members. This was a joke that was unambiguously critical of Lembit and I am concerned about how it reflects on our leader whom Lembit was actually supporting on LBC and on Talk Sport on the very same evening. On that weekend Lembit was also on a Peckham council estate canvassing in the Brunswick Park ward by-election. This was an important contest as it was in a Labour held ward, and following the events in Barnsley it was critical for the party that we fought back hard against Labour. That was why he was requested by his team to stay in London to campaign and not to go to Wales despite the risk of potential negative comments from the leader.
Lembit is widely acknowledged to be a true liberal and has been judged the most liberal of the most prominent Lib Dems. This judgement was made in a report linked to the classical liberal leaning blog Liberal Vision.
He was popular on the doorstep of Peckham as his profile resonates with the young, with Central and East European migrants, and with non-unionised workers. These are large and important sections of the voting population of London, and Lembit could be a real asset to the party in winning their vote. That is why we are campaigning hard on his behalf.
Lembit’s team includes Liberal Democrat loyalists. Their view is that they don’t wish to be involved in internal arguments attacking Nick personally as a response to his comments . They would request that the impression that the leadership team is briefing against Lembit is brought to an end, as it’s not helping anyone, least of all the party.
To quote Benjamin Franklin “If we do not hang together we will hang separately”
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Why non-fiction books need their indexes
Changes in status: Local Elections wrap up
What should the Liberal Democrats stand for?
How many councillors has Reform UK lost since the May 2026 elections?
Ben Wood
Ed Sanderson
Jack
Matt (Bristol)
John Grout
25 Comments
Absolutely. Lembit is one of the most high profile people we have, especially in the tabloid media. There may be justified criticism of his last Parliamentary campaign, but I for one will not be judging him on comments like this.
Opik is popular with “non-unionised workers”? What nonsense is this?
Tony Greaves
The article does not state that Lembit is popular with “non-unionised workers” although my experience has been that Lembit is popular on the ground (i.e.face to face) with a wide range of voters unionised or ununionised, working or not working. It states that the profile Lembit has adopted resonates with non unionised workers. On the Politics Show Lembit spoke out for the needs of small businesses which is where the non-unionised workers are often to be found. He has also made other statements to support ‘labour’ i.e. the workforce, as opposed to other vested interests that might normally be associated with the Conservative party. I believe that to win the mayoral campaign we must address the needs of this group and have found Lembit much more responsive to the needs of this section of the electorate that others in the party.
Ed Joyce
Maybe if Lembit stopped acting like a joke he’d stop getting treated like on? He’s embarrassing.
Lembit has made him self a laughing stock and in the process lost one of our safest seats so personally h can have no cause for complaints if Nick uses him as a figure of fun.
If he’d done more work in his constituency and spent less time shagging around, perhaps he’d still be an MP. The thought of him being the mayoral candidate is dreadful – almost worse than just not standing one.
The fact that Lembit’s campaign team felt the need to respond to this is not helping to change my view he is unlikely to be the best Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor. Going on cheap reality TV means people are going to make jokes at your expense.
Any one else noticed that the first half of this post is devoted to repeating the joke about Lembit? With those kinds of campaigning skills behind him we can all sleep safely knowing he is unlikely to win anything.
Lembit lacks any credibility entirely because of his own behaviour. He has left it far too late to reinvent himself as a serious politician.
“This judgement was made in a report linked to the classical liberal leaning blog Liberal Vision.”
Didn’t they also say that Adrian Sanders was going to lose his seat whilst Lembit held his. Given that they are currently running a piece saying that Socialism is worse than having an atom bomb dropped on you, I always assumed that they were some sort of satirical parody of Libertarianism
What a terribly thin skinned response. A couple of throw away lines about a man who threw away his political career and his campaign team are demanding some sort of right to reply.
It’s entirely consistent with Lembit’s lack of self awareness that his team tries to make him seem like the victim – when everything that has happened to him is entirely self inflicted.
Anyway there are now at least two credible candidates coming forward – Mike Tuffrey and Dominic Carmen and I suspect if lembit’s time was ever – it certainly isn’t now.
http://livingonwords.blogspot.com/2011/03/solving-lembit-for-mayor-problem-in-one.html
i’m confused about the defence of him not coming to wales. i don’t think he has any links to the welsh party anymore, so dont worry about that. and if he had come, he would not have got a very warm wecome i assuree you.
p.s. liberal vision can kiss my opik!
For his own sake he needs to withdraw from the public eye and think about what he is going to do with the rest of his life. He is clearly a very talented man, but I don’t think he is going to be able to make a living as a politician or stand up comedian.
Right to reply? Perhaps he and his team could reply to the rest of us who are wondering how he managed to throw away a secure seat entirely through his own (mis)behaviour and complete disregard for the electorate and everyone who supported him. Sorry, but the only good thing about him switching his attention from Montogmeryshire to London is that it means he won’t be back to try for his old seat – hopefully.
I wonder what Liberal Vision made of Lembit’s stance on renationalising the railways (or piloting doing so, anyway) at conference not too long ago…
If Lembit becomes our candidate then I will vote for him and campaign hard for him. Will I vote for him to become our candidate in the internal election? My mind remains unmade.
What I don’t get is how Lembit managed to lose his Montgomeryshire seat. It was (until recently) considered a very safe Lib Dem seat. I need that explained to me before I can put my trust in Lembit again.
I do get a bit annoyed with the endless Lembit ragging myself. I think he’s made mistakes, of course, but to say that he “single-handedly” lost his seat is clearly nonsense. Anybody who’s worked a General Election campaign knows that there are far more people than the candidate involved – and I’m sure many of us have worked hard to support a Lib Dem candidate we don’t personally like.
I thought Nick’s joke was cheap, nasty and reflected badly on Nick himself. Same with his crack about John Prescott eating all the hors d’ouevres at a No2AV dinner party – unnecessary sizeist tripe from the leader of a party with policy which recognises the damage of body fascism, against a man with an eating disorder where there is plenty of other ways to criticise him.
I voted for Lembit as my first choice for Party President last time he stood. Not because of who he’s slept with, not because of the TV shows he’s been on, but because he presented what I believed to be the most credible platform. I’m not based in London, but if he becomes our candidate for Mayor I will do my best to support him. If you don’t think he’s the best candidate, don’t vote for him, or criticise his platform, but leave the stupid wisecracks out of it – the only person it makes look an idiot is you.
@David
“What I don’t get is how Lembit managed to lose his Montgomeryshire seat. It was (until recently) considered a very safe Lib Dem seat. I need that explained to me before I can put my trust in Lembit again.”
It wasn’t always as safe as assumed. In the 33 years Clement Davies held the seat he only fought two 3-cornered elections – 1950 and 1959. The Tories didn’t oppose him at all in 1951 or 1955. I believe he was (as a National Liberal) elected unopposed in 1931 and 1935. Also Emyln Hooson lost it to the Tories in 1979 and Alex Carlyle regained it in 1983.
LibDems don’t really have ANY safe seats. Remember that for the first twenty years Simon Hughes held his seat, pundits predicted he would lose at EVERY general election.
We remain fond of Lembit and admire his intelligence but he has wasted too many opportunities by bad judgement and now needs to put in a deal of quiet hard work for the party over an extended period before I will take him seriously again.
I am with you Dave, Ian and Leek.
I have worked with Lembit in wales and found him to be a serious politician, I wish him all the best
and having a bit of character wont do him any harm.
Lembit is widely acknowledged to be a true liberal and has been judged the most liberal of the most prominent Lib Dems. This judgement was made in a report linked to the classical liberal leaning blog Liberal Vision
This Orwellian attempt to steal the word “Liberal” and use it to mean something else from what those of us who have used it to describe ourselves in the past is enough to tell us why we should NEVER give any sort of influence to these people.
I was disappointed to see Nick joking at Lembit’s expense.
We had 13 years of an infighting government with Blair vs Brown camps I had been finding it really refreshing to see the mature way both parties had been conducting themselves in coalition.
Nick’s joke though was at the expense of a member who always stands up for the Liberal Democrat cause, I can understand people who criticise what he does and how he goes about it but I don’t think you can question his loyalty.
I don’t think he would be the best Mayor for London, but the question is does he stand the best chance of winning from a Liberal Democrat platform? The election of Boris Johnson I think shows that it’s not always the best politician who wins these sort of elections. Lembit’s profile could help with the campaigning. I’m not sure if he would be my choice, I’d like to see all of the platforms first, but should he be chosen I’d be happy supporting him.
@ Dave “Anybody who’s worked a General Election campaign knows that there are far more people than the candidate involved ”
True, it takes teamwork to win – but it’s quite possible for a candidate to lose all by themselves
Mat Lambert: Well said…
Nick’s joke was perfectly fine and invited by Lembit going on “I’m a Celebrity get me out of here” anyway. Lembit’s ego and yearning for self-publicity unfortunately occludes his serious side.