WI in 2010 the Lib Dems won enough seats to easily support Labour in government too?

In the 2010 UK general election, the Conservatives won 307 seats, Labour won 258 and the Liberal Democrats won 57, with the rest won by various minor parties. Now, the Lib Dems could have conceivably helped keep the Labour Party in government, but not alone: together they would make a total of 315 seats, when 326 would be needed for a majority (or 323 if you discount the seats won by Sinn Fein). So a returned Labour government would've also needed the support of other minor parties: the SDLP (3 seats) and the Alliance Party (1 seat) would be most likely to go along given their affiliations with Labour and the Lib Dems respectively; they'd also need some combination of the SNP (6 seats), Plaid Cymru (3 seats) and the Green Party (1 seat). It could've been done, but it would've been really unwieldy.

So, the question is: what if the Lib Dems had won enough seats that they could've conceivably made up a majority with either the Conservatives or Labour just by themselves, without those other minor parties needing to be involved? Would they have been any likelier to form a coalition with Labour, or possibly to switch from one party to the other mid-term?


(By the way: I checked out the 2010 results and out of the 13 seats the Lib Dems lost in that election, six of them were lost by tiny margins – five to the Conservatives, one to Labour. That's still not enough to make it to 326 or even 323, so let's say Labour kept a few extra seats from going Conservative as well.)
 
the Lib Dem polling high water was in April when they were bouncing at 30-34% and even winning in some polls, so using the dark art of seat calculator, and the best poll the Lib Dems ever managed

that works out to:
Liberal Democrats, 34% of the vote, 156 seats
Conservatives, 31% 233 seats
Labour 26% 233 seats
 
the Lib Dem polling high water was in April when they were bouncing at 30-34% and even winning in some polls, so using the dark art of seat calculator, and the best poll the Lib Dems ever managed

that works out to:
Liberal Democrats, 34% of the vote, 156 seats
Conservatives, 31% 233 seats
Labour 26% 233 seats
That's not what I was asking. I was asking what could happen if the Lib Dems won just enough seats that they could've potentially supported either the Conservatives or Labour in forming government, without needing other parties to help support Labour too. Like, say if Labour and the Lib Dems together added up to maybe 330-340 seats.

I'm not really interested in a mega-Lib-Dem victory. If you let them win more than double the seats they had in the 2005-10 parliament that's too drastic a change to actually answer the original question based on what we know from OTL. Especially if they also win the popular vote – the entire tone of the situation would be different.
 
Well let's say the Lib Dems do poll *slightly* better, enough to be a Kingmaker.

Ironically we're likely to see an even worse time for the Lib Dems than OTL (if possible).

Nick Clegg was ALWAYS going to deal with the 'winning' party first. This is most likely being the Conservatives.

At best, Clegg will get a slightly better deal with the Conversatives to push a Lib Dem agenda, with the left being equally punishing at the 2015 elections for doing a deal with the Tories.

At worst, Clegg will face a Lib Dem rebellion if he tries to take them into coalition with the Conservatives. The Social Democrat wing points out the won their seats on a lefty platform and to honour their pledges they need to work with Labour. Clegg and Cameron then do a juggling act to figure out if between them they have enough 'safe' seats to counter any respective back bench rebellions.

If that breaks down, Clegg is either forced to deal with Labour, with Conservatives crying out about the death of democracy or its back to the polls.
 
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