Colin Firth abandons Lib Dem support over fees
By politics.co.uk staff
Colin Firth, one of the most prominent celebrity supporters of the Liberal Democrats during the election campaign, has declared himself ‘unaligned’.
Mr Firth announced his abdication as a celebrity supporter at a Dubai film festival – and cited the party’s broken pledge on tuition fees for driving him away.
He was quoted by the Guardian newspaper as saying: “I think it is profoundly disillusioning if you are a student who registered to vote simply because of what the Liberal Democrats were promising, and many, many did and simply because of what the Liberal Democrats had to say about tuition fees and things.
“It is one of the reasons I went in that direction.”
Casting himself as a supporter of “progressive” politics, he said the decision on fees “made it difficult” for the party’s left-leaning base to continue their backing.
But he acknowledged that Nick Clegg’s position after the election made the coalition with the Conservatives all but inevitable, adding: “I do believe he did what he thought was the only choice at that time given the parliamentary situation and it being impossible to do a deal with Labour.”
The actor was one of several celebrities to throw their weight behind the Liberal Democrats in the heady days of ‘Cleggmania’, including Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe and comedian Armando Ianucci.
The withdrawal of Mr Firth’s backing is symptomatic of the Lib Dems’ dire poll ratings. The party recently sank to eight per cent in a YouGov survey – the lowest rating the pollster has ever given the party.
The student protest movement has directed much of its considerable ire at the deputy prime minister, while the National Union of Students (NUS) is campaigning to actively remove Lib Dem MPs who voted in favour of the legislation, passed last Thursday, from their seats.
