Vince Cable is confident proposed changes to constituency boundaries will not go ahead because Liberal Democrats were determined to ruin the Conservatives’ plans.


The Business Secretary said his party was standing firm and would take revenge against the Tories for failing to deliver House of Lords reform.


The Twickenham MP could go head-to-head with Zac Goldsmith, Conservative MP for Richmond Park, at the next general election and fight for a new Richmond and Twickenham constituency under the proposals, which MPs are due to vote on in 2013.


In an exclusive interview with the Richmond and Twickenham Times, he said: “We’ve taken the view that if we can’t get the support of the Conservatives to pursue House of Lords reform we don’t see why we should support constitutional change, which they are very anxious to have.


“Obviously if there’s a vote then there’s a vote, but I think the Conservatives alone don’t have enough. There are a lot of Conservatives themselves who are unhappy with the boundary changes, but even if they all voted for the changes there are not enough votes to get it through.


“I will be 100 per cent supporting Nick Clegg’s suggestion - we maintain complete solidarity on this issue.”


Dr Cable’s comments reflect the growing tensions within the coalition Government over constitutional reform.


His views appear to have hardened since 91 Conservative MPs rebelled against proposed changes to the House of Lords, a long-term goal of the Lib Dems that would have seen the total number of peers halved and 80 per cent elected.


The Business Secretary denied last month that the Lib Dems were threatening to block Tory-backed plans to carve up constituency boundaries and reduce the size of the House of Commons from 650 MPs to 600, when he appeared on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.


The Twickenham MP said this week that the proposals, expected to boost the Conservatives' election prospects, threatened to disrupt voters’ sense of identity.


He said: “The impression I have is that those people in my constituency prefer to keep the boundaries as they are, they don’t want to be hacked up and be combined with bits of Hounslow and lose bits of their identity.


“The Liberal Democrats have made it very clear we will be opposing changes and I think Labour will be opposing the changes, so I think it’s very difficult to say they will proceed. 


“I think essentially the likely outcome now is the status quo. I think most people would prefer that and it makes life easier in terms of campaigning for both of the borough’s sitting MPs because we are campaigning in areas we know and where people voted for and against in the past.


“I think combining Teddington, Hampton and Hampton Wick with bits of Hounslow doesn’t make any kind of sense.”