Lib Dems reject Tory MP's call for electoral pact

Nick Boles - the MP for Grantham and Stamford - has said the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats should not fight each other in seats they already hold.

He tells the Politics Show in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire: "We will have been working together through thick and thin and through some difficult times with Liberal Democrats for five years. Isn't a little ludicrous to think that three months before the election, we are suddenly going to start attacking people who've been our partners in the work of government?"

Although he is a new MP, Nick Boles is seen as a rising star of the Conservative Party. He is a former head of Policy Exchange, which has been described as David Cameron's favourite think-tank.

He has also been bracketed as a member of the band of Tory modernisers known as the "Notting Hill Set."

However, Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrats' Deputy Leader has dismissed talk of an electoral pact. Speaking to the Politics Show in Hull he said: "We are a proud independent party. We will stand in every parliamentary seat at the next election as we did this year."

So, at the moment there seems to be no prospect of a deal on an electoral pact between the two coalition partners.

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