AP News, December 18th, 2007
Britain's Liberal Democrats elected the youthful Nick Clegg as their third leader in two years Tuesday, and he vowed to reverse a slump in fortunes and woo voters disenchanted with modern politics.
Clegg, 40, narrowly beat fellow ex-European lawmaker Chris Huhne, 53, to lead the third-ranked party, which fiercely opposed the Iraq war.
He promised to break the stranglehold of the governing Labour party and the main opposition Conservatives. Since 1922, those two parties have won every British election.
"In short, I want the Liberal Democrats to be the future of politics, to break the stifling grip of the two-party system for good," Clegg said.
Many in Clegg's party hope they will act as kingmaker in a future parliament when neither Labour nor the Conservatives wins a majority and must turn to the third-place Liberal Democrats for support to form a government.
His party has 63 members in the House of Commons, behind the governing Labour Party, which has 352, and the Conservatives with 194. The next national election is likely in 2009 or 2010.
"Today is about two things: ambition and change," Clegg said. "Renewed ambition for the Lib Dems, renewed ambition to reach out to the millions of people who I know share our instincts and values but do not yet vote for us."
Clegg won 20,988 votes to his rival's 20,477, after a two-month contest sparked by the resignation of Sir Menzies Campbell. The 66-year-old party leader stepped down in October following criticism of his style and constant sniping about his age.
The party rode high as tensions simmered over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, but has seen support sag as Britain withdraws its troops and moves slowly toward a full exit.
Many supporters — and the Liberal Democrats' green agenda — have been snatched by the rival opposition Conservative Party, which has been revived under current leader David Cameron, elected in 2005.
A recent opinion poll put support for the Liberal Democrats at 14 percent, behind Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party at 35 percent and Cameron's Conservatives at 42 percent.
The Ipsos-Mori poll interviewed 1,859 adults from Nov. 29 to Dec. 7. No margin of error was given, but in similar samples, it is typically plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Liberal Democrat lawmaker Sarah Teather told The Associated Press she believed Clegg can woo voters who have become disenchanted with politics.
"People who've fallen out of love with politics, that's great ground for us," she said. "I'm very, very pleased with the result."
Both Huhne and Clegg served as legislators in the European Parliament. "Nick Clegg promises to be a brilliant leader of the party," said Andrew Duff, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Europe.
The Liberal Party, ancestor of the Liberal Democrats, enjoyed its high-water mark in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. The last Liberal to serve as prime minister was David Lloyd George, from 1916 to 1922.
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Associated Press writer Constant Brand, in Brussels, Belgium, contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
http://www.libdems.org.uk
