The Liberal Democrats suffered further humiliation today, as hours before nominations closed in the party's troubled leadership contest it emerged that the victor would have at least one less member to lead.

Adrian Graves, who stood unsuccessfully for the Lib Dems in 1997 and 2005 in Suffolk West, said that his decision to jump ship was inspired by the shift in the direction and atmosphere in the Tory party under David Cameron.

There is speculation in Westminster that up to three Lib Dem MPs are also considering a switch, further marginalising the party which has suffered from the acrimonious ousting of Charles Kennedy over alcoholism, and Mark Oaten's shock resignation from the contest following allegations of a relationship with a male prostitute.

The party was hoping that the leadership election would fend off the looming sense of crisis and revitalise supporters battered by the events of the past two weeks. The final deadline for entries is at 4pm, with three candidates so far declared.

Writing in The Independent, Mr Graves said that the Conservatives under Mr Cameron offered a genuine possibility for 'regime change' at the next general election. He said that the nightmare scenario would be a hung parliament between a weakened Labour Party under Gordon Brown propped up by a left-leaning Liberal Democrat group headed by Simnon Hughes.

The prospect of such a result appeared to dim today, as a poll revealed that Mr Hughes, an energetic activist popular with the grassroots, was losing support to the relatively unknown Chris Huhne.

Ladbrokes quoted odds of 4-7 for Sir Menzies Campbell to assume the leadership with Mr Huhne, the economics spokesman, nudging in as second favourite at 11-4 and Simon Hughes drifting out to 7-2.

It is not expected any further leadership hopefuls will throw their hats into the ring. All three contenders will be hoping to get back to the policy debate after the turmoil of recent weeks which has engulfed the party.

Following the close of nominations, candidates have 24 hours to decide if they want to pull out, before ballot papers are printed then sent out to the party’s 73,000 members on Monday.

Members will have until March 1 to return their completed papers, with the count and the announcement of the result taking place the following day, Thursday March 2 - just before the start of the party's spring conference.

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