Kennedy: 'Not on Blair's side'

He insisted he was "not on the same side as the prime minister on most issues", essentially ending any kind of "co-operation" between the two parties.

At the end of the last decade, MPs from both parties were horrified by disclosures in personal papers belonging to Paddy Ashdown - Mr Kennedy's predecessor - that suggested the prime minister had offered Lib Dems two places in the cabinet.

There is a big feeling out there ... that there is a real distrust, a real distaste that has grown up from this government Charles Kennedy

In 1999, the now Lord Ashdown hinted that he had discussed the prospect of a coalition, nicknamed the Full Monty, with Mr Blair in the autumn of 1997.

But Mr Kennedy said on Thursday "there has not been anything like ... that kind of project on the go whatsoever" in the four years he has been leader.

He argued that while his party will make "sensible common cause" with politicians in other parties on issues such as the euro "there is no basis for practical co-operation as such".

The Lib Dems will "carry on as we have been successfully building and growing ourselves as an independent opposition party", he said.

Iraq

"I am not on the same side as the prime minister on most issues," Mr Kennedy told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"We have seen that in the defining international issue of the last year of course which has been Iraq ..."

Mr Kennedy maintained that he kept his anti-war stance "because it was the correct thing to do" and not because it "created a degree of popularity".

He said it was "pretty self evident to people" that his party had moved further away from Labour since 1997, partly because of "the growing confidence of the Liberal Democrats".

"There is a big feeling out there ... that there is a real distrust, a real distaste that has grown up from this government, that there is no sufficient credibility that has yet attached itself to the Conservatives - that's a big opportunity for the Liberal Democrats to step up our campaign," said Mr Kennedy.

MPs from both sides were horrified by "pact"

He stressed: "I think it is a significant shift and six years into a Labour government that has been clearly lacking in the delivery on the domestic agenda, so timid on the constitutional agenda and at the end of the day has really failed to inspire trust - quite the opposite in the body politic as a whole.

"That is not a set of ideas that in any way lend themselves to the Liberal Democrats.

"We stand for precisely the opposite - engaging people in a much more consultative and consensual approach to our politics.

"That's what we have been doing. That's what is finding a resonance with people . That is what we are going to carry on with increasing gusto."

Mr Kennedy was sanguine about one recent opinion poll which suggested his party was down six points, stressing that over the past two years, polls had generally shown support for the Lib Dems to be at its highest level of 20% plus.

"We are in a good growing basis and I intend to keep it that way," he added.