Vince Cable was embroiled in a furious row today as frontbench colleagues accused the party's most prominent member of formulating a policy that was "complete codswallop".
The Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman came under intense pressure to justify why he and Nick Clegg have made series of announcements during the conference without consulting colleagues.
This principal attack was over a "mansion tax" on properties worth more than £1 million, which began to unravel yesterday when it emerged they had no firm idea how properties would be valued, whether the tax would apply in Scotland and whether it would be permanent.
Mr Cable’s frontbench colleagues were stunned to discover it formed the centrepiece of yesterday’s speech, saying that Mr Cable had been trying and failing to argue for its introduction for years.
They were stunned that he appeared to have unilaterally overridden their objections without prior discussion and several including Danny Alexander, Nick Clegg’s own chief of staff, struggled to explain how it would work in practice.
The confrontation with Mr Cable happened at a rowdy meeting of the Liberal Democrat parliamentary party at 9am in the Birkbeck room of the Highcliff Hotel, where Mr Clegg is staying.
Those present also vented their fury at the attempt to abandon the pledge to scrap tuition fees and suggestions the party might means test child benefit.
The Liberal Democrat leader was not at the meeting, having arranged a visit to a nearby farm. In his absence, colleagues felt emboldened to criticise Mr Cable, deriding the mansion tax plan as "complete codswallop".
Another said that Mr Clegg and Mr Cable had "not been given powers to govern all policy for the party". One described the policy as "suicidal".
Chris Huhne, the party's home affairs spokesman, admitted on the BBC that he hadn’t been consulted in advance. Frontbenchers have complained to The Times that they have been forced to defend decisions in their subject areas which they had no idea were coming and, in some cases, disagreed with.
The criticism represents a particular problem for Mr Clegg since the Liberal Democrats must put all policies to a vote.
A motion voted through almost unanimously by delegates said that their policy document "neither abandons nor downgrades any existing policy commitments and that the process of prioritising policy commitments will only be carried out in the preparation of the general election manifesto".
One of those present told The Times: "I don’t think the deputy leader was left in any doubt that he had put a lot of noses out of joint. People do appreciate he’s doing a good job, but people also realise that publishing a pamphlet is rather more premeditated than being put on the spot and he hadn’t observed the normal courtesies.
"On the tax policies, if he had consulted the relevant spokespeople he wouldn’t have run into the trouble."
Mr Cable faced awkward questions over whether the tax would apply in Scotland, which he answered "unsatisfactorily", according to one observer.
Scottish Lib Dem MPs including Bob Smith and Alistair Carmichael were among the ringleaders, while Julia Goldsworthy was particularly embarrassed by the mansion tax announcement because she had not been warned about it, even though it fell in her brief.
"Eventually he [Mr Cable] showed contrition. He was pretty evasive and in denial when the first complaints came through, but he got the temperature by the end and he said if it hadn’t been recess he could have consulted colleagues," the observer said.
However, "it could have been bloodier" given the levels of anger.
A spokesman for the party said "lessons would be learnt".
Sir Menzies Campbell told the BBC that the party had to "grow up".
Source:The times
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