Oh Lord! Lib Dems forget their own history of scandal

The Westminster sex scandal has threatened to engulf the Tories and Labour, but there’s been little word from the Liberal Democrats.

Sir Vince Cable, the party leader, has confined himself to saying: ‘ Parliament clearly needs improved procedures to respond to allegations of harassment.’

Could Cable have offered such a muted response because he’s aware that, in 2014, Lib Dem Lord Rennard — one of his friends — was suspended from the party and forced to apologise to four women party members for ‘encroaching on their personal space’.

Now back on the Lib Dem red benches, Rennard was in Cable’s Twickenham constituency helping to campaign during the General election.

Like any Lib Dem worth their salt, Rennard is no stranger to hypocrisy. In a debate in the Lords about party political funding last week, he said: ‘The scandals of all parties and referendum campaigns that depend on the donations of a few rich individuals will continue until we cap donations at a sensible level, and consider redirecting some of the Government’s advertising budget to extend existing levels of state funding to support our democracy — which does not come free.’

hang on, in 2005 the Lib Dems took £2.4 million — their biggest donation — from a chancer named Michael Brown. One of Britain’s most wanted fraudsters, in 2012 he was jailed for seven years.

Who was chief executive of the party when they took the money? Lord Rennard. Presumably given his sanctimonious demand that the ‘scandal’ of large individual donations be ended, you’d expect him to have made sure his party repaid Brown’s money, which came from stolen funds.

But no — not a single penny.