Would Robin Cook have switched to the Lib Dems?

The former editor of The New Statesman, John Kampfner has an article in the Guardian today where he explains why he is backing the Lib Dems in the coming general election. He suggests that the party is now "a natural home for left-liberal Cookites" like him.

He goes on to say:

I have long described myself as of the centre-left, a left-liberal whose reference point was the politics of the late Robin Cook. His ideological bearings were sensible redistribution, an ethical foreign policy, constitutional change, investment in public services, and environmental protection. Some of his hopes have been fulfilled. Most of them have not.

I think it is hard to judge whether Robin Cook would have decided to join the Lib Dems. There had been a rapprochement between him and Gordon Brown in his final couple of years and there was the expectation that he would have been given a senior post in Brown's eventual cabinet. Indeed it is arguable that with another political big beast such as Cook alongside him who was also evidently very principled, Brown's government would have been better than it has turned out to be. However if he had not been able to make much of a difference and things had panned out roughly as they have done then I would suggest all bets are off.

If people such as Kampfner who are self described Cookites are backing the Lib Dems then it is not hard to imagine that Cook himself would have been tempted.

Sadly we will never know if it would have been more than just temptation for one of the best Labour parliamentarians of his generation.