Blow to Nick Clegg as party threatens 'breakaway'

Nick Clegg suffered a damaging blow at the start of the crucial Oldham by-election today when novelist Jeanette Winterson angrily withdrew her backing for him.

The award-winning author told the Standard she had quit the Liberal Democrats and was so angry with its leader she was willing to organise a breakaway party.

Winterson was among celebrities and academics who signed an open letter endorsing Mr Clegg and his party during the general election campaign. But she said: "I wouldn't sign it again and I wouldn't support them. Nick Clegg might as well become a Tory moderate.

"The rest, well, we need a new party. I am ready to organise."

Her move comes days after actor Colin Firth said he was leaving the party because of Mr Clegg's broken promise to oppose any rise in student fees.

Mr Clegg this afternoon moved a writ to launch the Oldham East & Saddleworth battle. Labour officials predicted they would win the seat left vacant when former Immigration Minister Phil Woolas was expelled from parliament for lying about his Lib-Dem opponent.

Author Philip Pullman also said today he "never would have signed" a letter supporting the Liberal Democrats had he known they would form a coalition with the Conservatives.

Mr Pullman said: "If I'd known when I signed that letter that the Liberal Democrats were going to go into coalition with the Conservatives I would have urged people to vote Green instead. Quite clearly the promises the Liberal Democrats were elected on bear very little relation to what they are doing now. I fear they are going to fall apart. Some people who voted Liberal Democrat are more at home intellectually and emotionally with a Left-of-centre party."

Sociologist Richard Sennett, another signatory of the letter on April 28, is now advising Ed Miliband. Other signatories voiced concern about the direction of the Coalition, warning Mr Clegg he could lose their support.

John Kampfner, chief executive of the Index on Censorship, said: "I still support them as a Left liberal but the onus on them is to prove that they are making a fundamental difference and are not just a delivery vehicle for the Conservatives."

Philosopher Raymond Tallis said: "The broken pledge is a symptom of a much bigger problem. But the huge worry is the White Paper on the NHS which is going to atomise the NHS and the Lib Dems have gone along with it, or said nothing against it." Novelist Nick Harkaway was "disappointed" with some events but did not regret signing the letter.

He said he would leave if the party failed to improve civil liberties.

Author Lisa Appignanesi said: "The Lib Dems performance in the coalition has been less than the tempering influence one could have wished.

David Marquand, a former adviser to Roy Jenkins and principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, withdrew his support within a month of the election that saw the Liberal Democrats form the Coalition.

Labour leader Ed Miliband sped up to Oldham today to be the first leader to begin campaigning.

His party accused Mr Clegg of underhanded tactics in calling the campaign during the Christmas period, breaching a convention that Labour would decide on the date of a by-election in a seat they previously held.

Mr Woolas, who had a majority of just 103, was found guilty of deliberately lying about Lib-Dem rival Elwyn Watkins, and failed to overturn the decision in the High Court this month.

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