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Vince Cable: "I was not given any information about these polls"
Vince Cable has denied acting disloyally after one of his closest allies attempted to get Nick Clegg sacked as Liberal Democrat leader.
Lord Oakeshott commissioned polls suggesting the party would do better without Mr Clegg at the helm.
Mr Cable admits knowing about some of the polling, but denied knowing about ones in Mr Clegg's own constituency.
He denied wanting Mr Clegg's job before the next election telling BBC News: "I am supporting the party leader."
The business secretary, who is on a trade mission in China, said he wanted the "in-fighting" in the party to end, saying: "There is no leadership issue. We have a united team."
Asked about the polls suggesting the party would do better under his leadership, Mr Cable said he was not going to "speculate" about "abstract possibilities".
BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson said that despite Mr Cable's pledge of loyalty "lingering" questions remained because the business secretary knew that the polls had asked about whether a change of leader would improve the party's fortunes but appears not to have told Mr Clegg.
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Nick Clegg: "Vince Cable clearly didn't know a thing about the poll being conducted"
The polls, which suggested the party would lose fewer seats at the next election if Mr Cable or, to a lesser extent Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander, was the leader instead of Mr Clegg were leaked to The Guardian in the wake of disastrous local and European election results for the party.
The man who paid for them, Lord Oakeshott, has been agitating for the removal of Mr Clegg for some time. He has now quit the party, claiming it is "heading for disaster" under Mr Clegg.
In his resignation statement he said Mr Cable knew about the polls - including the one in Mr Clegg's Sheffield Hallam constituency - some weeks ago.
The business secretary has repeatedly denied this, insisting he knew about Lord Oakeshott's polling in his Twickenham constituency and some other areas, but not in Mr Clegg's constituency or fellow minister Danny Alexander's Inverness constituency.
Mr Cable said there was "no disloyalty whatever" and he had made clear that the polling carried out in Mr Clegg's constituency and Inverness was "quite wrong".
Speaking to BBC Radio Sheffield, Mr Clegg said of Mr Cable: "He clearly didn't know at all about a poll being conducted in Sheffield."
He added that Mr Cable had been "very critical" about the poll having taken place.
Mr Clegg admitted the party had lost support since joining the coalition in 2010, but that to leave now - as he said Lord Oakeshott desired - "would harm the Liberal Democrats for a generation".
He added: "Clearly, we had some really, really bad election results last week. That, of course, quite rightly means there's a lot of questions and soul searching about what we do as a party over the next year."
Although Mr Cable admitted he had discussed some polls with Lord Oakeshott, senior party sources have said there is no question about Mr Cable's loyalty.
And while they know continued turmoil could threaten to destabilise the party, sources close to Mr Clegg said Lord Oakeshott's departure had put an end to what they called a "ham-fisted coup attempt".
Lose seatsMr Clegg has faced calls to step down from 300 activists while a number of constituency associations, including Liverpool and Cambridge, are to hold meetings to discuss their leader's future.
He has said it was "wholly unacceptable" that a senior member of the party "rather than trying to go out and win votes was spending money and time trying to undermine the fortunes of the party".
It emerged on Tuesday that Lord Oakeshott had paid for an ICM poll into Mr Clegg's electoral appeal, with results suggesting the Lib Dems would pick up votes in four seats, including Mr Clegg's, if Mr Cable or other figures replaced Mr Clegg as leader.
The poll suggested the party was on course to lose Sheffield Hallam and three other seats - Cambridge, Redcar and Wells - next year unless there was a change at the top.
Lord Oakeshott has subsequently published poll findings suggesting the Lib Dems are vulnerable in Mr Cable's own seat, Twickenham, and Inverness, the constituency of Lib Dem Treasury minister Danny Alexander.
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