Lib Dem peer gets the sack after outburst
LORD Oakeshott was unceremoniously sacked from his job as Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman last night, after describing the government’s lending agreement with banks as “pitiful”.
The Liberal Democrats said the peer had agreed to leave his non-ministerial party post by “mutual consent”, although privately senior party sources said he had been sacked.
Oakeshott infuriated George Osborne, after dismissing the Treasury’s ability to negotiate with the banks. He said: “I think the Treasury’s negotiating tactics have not been very good. They have an awful combination of arrogance and incompetence, most of them couldn’t negotiate their way out of a paper bag.
A senior Lib Dem source said: “Oakeshott has been a pain for a long time now. The real problem is people thought he was talking for the front bench when he wasn’t. It was a case of do you want to go or must we make you.”