DANNY Alexander risks losing his seat at the next General Election, according to a secret poll commissioned by one of his own party's peers and released in an attempt to force Nick Clegg to resign as Liberal Democrat leader.
In a day of high drama for the LibDems, the peer, Lord Oakeshott, also appeared to implicate his close friend Vince Cable in a plot to oust Mr Clegg.
And he accused the party of corruption by offering places in the House of Lords in return for donations in a statement announcing his shock resignation.
Sources close to the LibDem leader last night insisted they did not think Mr Cable was involved in the attempted coup.
But the Business Secretary was later forced to go on television to deny he had known about Lord Oakeshott's actions.
The row came amid increasing pressure on Mr Clegg.
The local LibDem party in Cambridge has announced plans for an emergency meeting on his position. If enough local groups follow suit, they can potentially trigger a leadership election.
Critics of Mr Clegg believe that while this route is unlikely to be successful, the "drip, drip" effect could convince him to quit.
A close ally of Mr Clegg, LibDem peer Baroness Williams, revealed earlier this week that he had considered standing down in the wake of last week's local and European elections but had been persuaded to stay on.
Yesterday, in a series of parting shots that appeared designed to destabilise the party leadership, Lord Oakeshott hit out at the "disastrous" Mr Clegg.
Just hours earlier the peer had been told he faced disciplinary action after it emerged he secretly commissioned and published four other polls on key LibDem seats.
In his resignation statement, he warned the party the lesson of last week's council and European elections was "crystal clear" that it had to change its leader.
He praised those trying to force a leadership election, saying: "I have tried to give them the evidence they need to make the change. "I pray that they win, and that the right man, or preferably woman, is now elected to save the party."
He added that "my efforts to expose and end cash for peerages in all parties, including our own, and help get the Lords elected, have failed." He said he had told Mr Cable of the polls weeks ago, but said he was sorry to have "upset and embarrassed" the veteran LibDem.
The poll in Mr Alexander's political backyard of Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey puts him in third place behind the SNP and Labour.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury received the backing of 16% of constituents, compared with the SNP on 32% and Labour on 25%, according to the ICM poll.
Mr Alexander took the seat in 2010 election with 40% of the vote, compared to 18% for the SNP.
A spokesman for Mr Alexander attacked the poll, saying it did not bear scrutiny. He criticised the sample size and the fact those who took part were asked a question that did not mention either Mr Alexander's name or the name of the constituency.
"Recent research has shown that LibDem MPs receive an 11-point lift in such polls when people are specifically asked to think about their own constituency and their MP," he added.
SNP MP Angus Robertson, who holds the neighbouring Moray seat, said: "The European election results gave us an idea of how badly the Liberal Democrats are doing as they were swept off the electoral map of Scotland, but for their senior cheerleader in the Tory-led No campaign to be relegated to third place is another humiliation.
"The LibDems are tearing themselves apart and this poll will make Danny Alexander wince as support in his own constituency evaporates, with only a slightly higher vote than the Tories in fourth place."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article