Nick Clegg was facing a new setback last night amid fears of an embarrassing ‘no-show’ at a £150-a-head banquet he is due to host this week.
The concerns come as Mr Clegg struggles to lift his party after Thursday’s Barnsley by-election, where Liberal Democrat candidate Dominic Carman slumped to a humiliating sixth place.
No laughing matter: Nick Clegg, pictured yesterday, faces an embarrassing shortfall in ticket sales to the Lib Dem conference banquet
The Lib Dem leader will seek to use his party’s spring conference in Sheffield this week to allay many activists’ fears that the by-election result proves that being in Coalition with the Tories means oblivion for them.
But sources say tickets for a fundraising conference banquet, aimed at leading business figures, are selling badly – despite party chief executive Chris Fox promising ‘a very enjoyable and informative event as well as a useful opportunity to network with fellow business people’.
A copy of the invitation, leaked to The Mail on Sunday, says: ‘The Spring Business Lunch will be hosted by Nick Clegg and attended by senior Ministers, parliamentarians, and leading regional business people and entrepreneurs.’
Mr Fox’s letter continues: ‘Individual tickets are £150 (inc VAT) and a table of eight is £1,200 (inc VAT). Places are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.’
Rebel Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock said event organisers had ‘over-pitched’ the price. He added: ‘To be honest, they’d have to pay me to go to this sort of thing, not the other way round.’
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