 Mike German told The Politics Show he is in responsible opposition |
Top Welsh Liberal Democrat Mike German has virtually ruled out joining Labour in a coalition assembly government. He said it was "highly unlikely" they would recreate the Lib-Lab deal in Cardiff Bay of five years ago.
First Minister Rhodri Morgan lost his assembly majority five months ago, since when the opposition parties have defeated Labour in a number of votes.
But Mr German, leader of the assembly Lib Dems, told the BBC's Politics Show that he could not see it happening.
 |  It would be silly in politics ever to say never, but I cannot see any circumstances at the present time when that would be likely |
The Lib Dems joined Labour in government just after Mr Morgan took power in 2000, which resulted in Mr German becoming his deputy, and his party taking a second seat in the cabinet. That was during the assembly's first term, when Labour won only 28 of the 60 seats.
Labour did have a majority after the assembly's second elections in May 2003, when it won 30 seats.
But the decision by Blaenau Gwent AM Peter Law to become an independent so that he could fight for the MP's seat as well meant that he left Labour, and cost his old party its majority.
 The final draft of the budget will have to be agreed by 10 December |
The opposition parties and independents can now outvote Labour, and have done on a number of high-profile issues, such as university top-up fees and the assembly's �13.8bn budget. Mr German and other opposition leaders will meet Mr Morgan on Wednesday to try to hammer out a compromise over the budget.
The first minister has claimed all AMs would be humiliated if they failed to reach a deal by the 10 December deadline and the budget would have to be set out by the assembly's senior civil servant.
But the opposition parties want Labour to put more money into such areas as education and council tax. Mr German told The Politics Show that in the first place no coalition was on offer, and secondly that there would be a very short time to put together a programme of government before the next assembly election in May 2007.
'Strong advocate'
"It would be silly in politics ever to say never, but I cannot see any circumstances at the present time when that would be likely. So I think it's very highly unlikely," he said.
Asked if that amounted to not necessarily a 'no', but an equivocal 'yes', he said: "I'm saying is that I can't see a reason why it would happen before the next elections."
Mr German said the other parties were currently conducting a "responsible opposition where we are in a majority." Where they were able to agree with each other and vote together, they would.
One of the issues where the opposition did agree was on plans to abolish the Welsh Language Board by bringing it under assembly government control. Also on The Politics Show, one of Mr German's Lib Dem colleagues, former Culture Minister Jenny Randerson, criticised a Labour successor, Alun Pugh, over the handling of the Welsh language.
Mrs Randerson said she feared the language would lose its independent voice and it needed a "strong advocate in the cabinet".
She said: "You must speak on the record of the person concerned... and I don't see anything very exciting has happened on the language in the past couple of years, which has disappointed me."
But Mr Pugh said her comments were "rather silly" and Labour's plans to increase the number of Welsh speakers were clear.
Mr Pugh said a row in the assembly last week over the board was nonsense which had nothing to do with the language.
"This is all about the 'Plaid-Tory coalition' trying to trip up the assembly government - it's nothing more than that," he said.
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