Cameron opens talks with Clegg on second Coalition D'Ancona writes: "From time to time, he [Mr Cameron] would raise the question of a second coalition with Clegg. 'If we did it again," he mused to the Deputy Prime Minister, 'I'd have to seek collective permission." " It is also claimed that Mr Clegg has privately confided to the Prime Minister that he could not form a coalition with Ed Miliband. In public, the Liberal Democrats have said they will form a coalition, should it become necessary, with whichever party wins the most public support. Steve Hilton, Mr Cameron's strategy chief, walked out on the Prime Minister after coming to the conclusion that he was a "reactive not transformative Prime Minister." Senior Conservatives privately drew up detailed plans for the Coalition in the weeks before the 2010 general election despite publicly warning of the dangers of a hung parliament. Mr Cameron blocked Lib Dem plans for a mansion tax on homes worth more than £2 million, which the Chancellor was tentatively supporting, because "our donors would never put up with it." The Camerons do not like the Downing Street cat, Larry, amid suggestions that the pet is a PR prop. MI6 drew up secret plans to help Col Muammar Gaddafi escape to exile in Equatorial Guinea during the Libyan conflict. The emergence of secret discussions about a second coalition is likely to dishearten Conservative supporters ahead of the party's annual conference, which starts in Manchester tomorrow. Last month, The Daily Telegraph disclosed that Mr Cameron had started planning for a second coalition and had held talks with Conservative colleagues. In his book, d'Ancona reveals that the Prime Minister has already started questioning whether a second coalition would be backed by his party. He writes: "How far would the elastic of Conservative patience stretch? Would the Lib Dem membership even consider it? Yet it was in the nature of the turbulent political landscape, so different from the New Labour era, to think about long shots. The book makes clear that any chance of a tie-up between Labour and the Lib Dems looks unlikely as long as Ed Miliband remains Labour leader. It recounts how, during a meeting of the three party leaders to discuss press regulation when Mr Miliband had "moralised a little too much," Mr Clegg turned to Mr Cameron, saying: "Now you can see why I don't want to go into coalition with him." Last month, it emerged that Mr Cameron wants Conservative MPs to put their names to any second coalition agreement and "dip their hands in the blood." This would head off simmering anger among Tory backbenchers that they were not given a proper opportunity to agree on sharing power in 2010.