THE life of a front-runner can be painful. On taking the lead an invisible darts board is affixed to their shoulders. It becomes the focus for all other competitors. Chris Huhne is beginning to know the feeling.

The man from nowhere is, according to polls, leading the Liberal Democrat leadership pack. Voting among the party’s 73,000 members closes on March 1. But has Mr Huhne hit the front too soon?

He is, of course, only “from nowhere” in a Westminster sense, having been elected MP a mere nine months ago. The former MEP has a political past in Brussels and a 20-year career as an economics journalist. That past is now being used against him.

Much of the criticism is subjective, bearing an obvious political motive. But Mr Huhne also has a history recorded in black and white that some fear would hamper the party should he become its leader. In particular, Mr Huhne has a long record of zealous support for European financial enterprises, including the single currency — at odds with British public opinion.

He has played this down in his manifesto to the point of avoiding the subject. “The euro is much maligned,” it simply states. But the blandness masks years of passionate support for British adoption of the single currency.

In 2001 he co-wrote a book arguing for British entry, a decade after a similar tome. Ditching the pound would end currency risk, increase competition, cut prices and raise productivity, he argued. A decade earlier he told Britain’s politicians to remember that “money is a convenience, not a piece of national bunting”. A year before sterling crashed out of the European exchange-rate mechanism, he trumpeted that “fixed exchange rates make sense”.

But despite the busting of the stability pact that has undermined the euro’s credibility, and the currency’s dimming popularity that has prompted leading Italian politicians to campaign for a return to the lira, a Huhne campaign aide insists: “He’s not going weak on the euro by any means.”

Concern is also expressed for other aspects of Mr Huhne’s campaign. MPs from the camps of Sir Menzies Campbell and Simon Hughes, his leadership rivals, are scathing about what they regard as dangerous opportunism. Mr Huhne has thrown buckets of red meat to Liberal Democrat activists in the shape of opposition to a Trident replacement and support for a fuel duty escalator. But he has sought to qualify the positions, raising questions about his judgment.

Mr Huhne’s expressed fervour for the environment has also surprised former colleagues, who cannot recall any previous interest but do remember the personalised numberplate on his company BMW. Likewise, civil liberties, the subject of a recent article by Mr Huhne for The Guardian.

In the European Parliament, neither did he spend time on foreign affairs nor women’s issues, two other campaign themes. “Chris’s career was extremely effective within a very narrow boundary — the financial services sector,” one MEP said.

During the last full Parliament, between 1999 and 2004, Mr Huhne made 25 speeches to the full chamber, all concerning financial matters. He signed 15 resolutions, mostly about financial matters, though three attacked attempts by religious authorities, including the Pope, to influence legislation.

It is notable that Mr Huhne has the backing of only three of the party’s 12 MEPs, a group to which he belonged until last May. Indeed, five years ago he failed in an effort to become their leader.

Some of the back-biting reflects irritation that Mr Huhne is in the field at all. It is fuelled, in part, by his decision to withdraw from an agreement with Sir Menzies not to stand against him, as detailed in The Times. But part of it is perhaps anger that he had the conviction or the ambition to stand when others similarly endowed sat on their hands. “He has had the courage to stand,” a Huhne aide said.

Opportunism, arrogance, telling voters what they want to hear, being unpopular with some colleagues: when such charges are laid alongside Tony Blair and David Cameron they appear no bar to office. Indeed, some Lib Dems may feel that Mr Huhne has the right stuff.

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