Lib Dem president: Labour? Why not Labour? We can work with either party Lib Dems have been hunting for a flagship policy since their bid to reform the House of Lords died in a ditch earlier this summer. This housing plan - which has been discussed and approved by the Lib Dems" high command - should be popular with the party's grassroots, helping hundreds of thousands of less well off people struggling to get on the property ladder. It could also enrage many Tory MPs, who may not be thrilled by the prospects of dozens of - what they may call - "council estates" popping up across their constituencies. Here's something else that will alarm many Tories: Mr Farron seems pretty willing to hop into bed with Labour. "I don't see why not - of course we can work with either party," he says. It's up to the British electorate - whoever is the most popular party has the right to form a government and we won't hinder that. It is quite likely that this 42-year-old former academic would be leading the Lib Dems into coalition with Labour. Activists and MPs like his easy nature, his Left-wing credentials and think he may be the man to heal the Lib Dem's tarnished reputation. In past year the party's has support has plunged in the polls. There have been grim local election results and membership has sunk below 50,000 for the first time. "It's not my burning ambition, but I am not saying I would never do it," he says, when asked if he would stand for leader. Definitely not now or very soon. Speculation about the leadership is, he says, irritating" and a "discourtesy to Nick." The fact that he is set to stand again as Lib Dem president and will not serve as a minister in the Coalition may suggest he wants to remain unsullied by consorting with Conservatives. Mr Clegg, once billed as the most popular political leader since Sir Winston Churchill, has suffered a spectacular fall in support and was even booed while presenting medals at the London Olympics. Mr Farron tries to be sanguine about this. "Blair was slow hand-clapped by the Womens" Institute and went on to win two more landslides." Some of Mr Farron's criticism of the Lib Dems" coalition partners is withering. Last weekend in this newspaper Michael Fallon, the new Conservative minister at the Department of Business, announced a radical new drive for deregulation. "I do wonder some times how many business people the Tories actually know," he says, when asked about this agenda. The businessmen I know are energetic and very ethical. Yes, we need to lighten the burden on small business, but sending out the message to wealthy people that we think your morality is so limited that the only thing that will keep you here is being allowed to dodge tax seems massively insulting. He makes a similar dig about regulation. "One local businessman in charge of a large firm based in the Lakes said to me recently: 'why do the Tories seem to think I will work harder and be more productive if I am allowed to treat my staff like dirt?."" There's even greater contempt for those hailing David Cameron's recent reshuffle as a move to the Right. "It may well be that the Prime Minister is trying to move in that direction," said Mr Farron. He can pick and chose his ministers, but he cannot pick and choose what is in the Coalition Agreement. So that means Heathow [expansion] ain't happening. Neither is any edging away from our commitment to be the greenest government ever. "I f this is a shift to the Right, it really is just a bit silly," he says. There are lot of Conservative MPs that think the Tories lost the last election by not being Right-wing enough - that's bonkers. They only got as close as they did because David Cameron moved them onto some vague centre ground. But from a Lib Dem perspective I'm happy, you folks go off to the Right. I know lot of decent, moderate voters who are never going to vote for hard, Right-wing dogma. Nick has something Cameron doesn't - the respect and affection of his team. The Tory troops just about think Cameron might be an electoral asset and that's why they tolerate him. Mr Cameron's support for gay marriage - set to be introduced by the end of the Coalition's term - has certainly caused irritation amongst many Tory MPs and supporters. It has also posed a problem or two for Mr Clegg, whose office was last week forced to withdraw a press release with passages from a speech in which the Deputy Prime Minister was set to call opponents of gay marriage "bigots." "They are not bigots - and Nick didn't ever say that," Mr Farron says. I take an orthodox view on biblical morality, but I do not think it is my job to enforce it on anyone else. I completely respect the view of people who do not think equal marriage is appropriate. There is a mindset amongst some people in favour of equal marriage who don't understand that this issue is awkward for some people. Just because you are not in favour of equal marriage doesn't make you a Nazi. He adds that there are Christians who are just as zealous on the other side of the argument. Tolerance is not about everyone agreeing on everything. It's about getting on with people you really don't agree with. A bit like Coalition government, you could say.