Liberal Democrats (UK)

The **Liberal Democrats** (commonly referred to as the **Lib Dems**) are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. Since the 1992 general election, with the exception of the 2015 general election, they have been the third-largest UK political party by the number of votes cast. They have 32 Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, 101 members of the House of Lords, 5 Members of the Scottish Parliament, 5 members in the National Assembly for Wales, 2 members in the London Assembly and one member of the European Parliament. The party has over 2,200 local council seats. The party holds a twice-per-year Liberal Democrat Conference, at which party policy is formulated. In contrast to its main opponents' conference rules, the Lib Dems grant all members attending its Conference the right to speak in debates and vote on party policy, under a one member, one vote system. The party also allows its members to vote online. The party served as the junior party in a coalition government with the Conservative Party between 2010 and 2015; with Scottish Labour in the Scottish Executive from 1999 to 2007, and with Welsh Labour in the Welsh Government from 2000 to 2003.

In 1981, an electoral alliance was established between the Liberal Party, a group which descended from the 18th-century Whigs, and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a splinter group from the Labour Party. In 1988, the parties merged as the Social and Liberal Democrats, adopting their present name just over a year later. Under the leadership of Paddy Ashdown and later Charles Kennedy, the party grew during the 1990s and 2000s, focusing its campaigns on specific seats and becoming the third-largest party in the House of Commons. In 2010, under Nick Clegg's leadership, the Liberal Democrats were junior partners in David Cameron's Conservative-led coalition government in which Clegg served as Deputy Prime Minister. Although it allowed them to implement some of their policies, the coalition badly damaged the party's electoral standing and they lost 24 of their 56 MPs at the 2015 general election, which relegated them to fourth-largest party in the House of Commons.

A centrist to centre-left political party, the Liberal Democrats ideologically draw upon both liberalism and social democracy. Different factions have dominated the party at different times, each with its own ideological bent, some leaning towards the centre-left and others the centre. The party calls for constitutional reform, including a change from the first-past-the-post voting system to proportional representation. Emphasising stronger protections for civil liberties, the party promotes social-liberal approaches to issues like LGBT rights, drug liberalisation, education policy and criminal justice. It favours a market-based economy supplemented with social welfare spending. The party is internationalist and pro-European and greater European integration, having previously called for adoption of the euro currency. The Lib Dems have promoted further environmental protections and opposed British military ventures like the Iraq War.

The Liberal Democrats are historically strongest in northern Scotland, south-west London, south-west England and mid-Wales. Membership is primarily made up of professionals that belong within the middle-class (without the reliance on trade unions or collective bargaining) and the party's composition has a higher proportion of university educated members than the other major political parties of the United Kingdom. The party is a federation of the English, Scottish and Welsh Liberal Democrats. The party is in a partnership with the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, while still organising there. Internationally, the party is a member of the Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party.

## History

### Origins (1977–1983)

The Liberal Party had existed in different forms for over 300 years. During the 19th and early 20th century, it had been one of the United Kingdom's two dominant political parties, along with the Conservative Party. Following World War I, it was pushed into third place by the Labour Party and underwent a gradual decline throughout the rest of the 20th century. In the 1970s, the Liberal leader David Steel began contemplating how an alliance with other parties could return it to political power. In 1977, he formed a pact with Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan to back Callaghan's government in a motion of no confidence. This angered many Liberals and damaged them electorally. In the 1979 general election, the Liberals lost three seats in the House of Commons; the Conservatives, led by Margaret Thatcher, won the election.

Within Labour, many centrists were uncomfortable with the growing influence of the hard left, who were calling for the UK to leave the European Economic Community and unilaterally disarm as a nuclear power. In January 1981, four senior Labour MPs—Bill Rodgers, Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins, and David Owen, known as the "Gang of Four"—issued the Limehouse Declaration in which they announced their split from Labour. This led to the formal launch of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in March. One of its first decisions was to negotiate an electoral arrangement with the Liberals, facilitated between Jenkins, who was the first SDP leader, and Steel.

The new alliance initially did well in opinion polls. The SDP and Liberals agreed to contest alternating parliamentary by-elections; between 1981 and 1982, the SDP came close in Warrington and won Crosby and Glasgow Hillhead. At the 1983 general election, the Liberals gained five additional seats although the SDP lost many that they had previously inherited from Labour. After the 1983 election, Owen replaced Jenkins as head of the SDP. Several gains were made in subsequent by-elections: the SDP won in Portsmouth South and Greenwich and the Liberals in Brecon and Radnor and Ryedale.

### Foundation and early years (1987–1992)

Both parties lost seats in the 1987 general election. In the wake of this, Steel called for the SDP and Liberals to merge into a single party. At the grassroots, various local constituency groups had already *de facto* merged. In the SDP, Jenkins, Rodgers, Williams, and the MP Charles Kennedy supported the idea; Owen and the MPs Rosie Barnes and John Cartwright opposed it. The SDP's membership was balloted on the idea: after it produced 57.4% in favour of the merger, Owen resigned as leader, to be replaced by Bob Maclennan. A Liberal conference in September found delegates providing a landslide majority for the merger. Formal negotiations launched that month and in December it produced a draft constitution for the new party. In 1988, Liberal and SDP meetings both produced majorities for the merger; finally, the memberships of both parties were balloted and both produced support for unification. Those in both parties opposed to unification split to form their own breakaway groups.

The Social and Liberal Democrats were formally launched on 3 March 1988. Steel and Maclennan initially became joint interim leaders. At the start, it claimed 19 MPs, 3,500 local councillors, and 100,000 members. In its first leadership election, Paddy Ashdown defeated Alan Beith. Ashdown saw the Liberal Democrats as a radical, reforming force, putting forward policies for introducing home rule for Scotland and Wales, proportional representation, transforming the House of Lords into an elected Senate, and advancing environmental protections. At the September 1988 conference it adopted the short form name "the Democrats" and in October 1989 changed its name to "Liberal Democrats". The bird of liberty was adopted as its logo. In 1989, its election results were poor: it lost 190 seats in the May 1989 local elections and secured only 6.4% of the vote in the 1989 European Parliament elections, beaten to third position by the Green Party of England and Wales. This was the worst election result for an established third party since the 1950s. Its prospects were buoyed after it won the 1990 Eastbourne by-election, followed by-election victories in Ribble Valley and Kincardine and Deeside. In the 1991 local elections it secured a net gain of 520 seats. In the 1992 general election, it secured 17.8% of the vote and 20 seats in the House of Commons: 9 of these were in Scotland and 5 in Southwest England.

### Consolidation and growth (1992–1999)

Between 1992 and 1997, the party underwent a period of consolidation, particularly on local councils. In the 1994 local elections, it came second, pushing the Conservatives into third place. In the 1994 European Parliament elections, it gained two Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). In 1993, the party was damaged by allegations of racism on the Liberal Democrat-controlled council in Tower Hamlets; it faced additional problems as its distinctive centrist niche was threatened by the rise of Tony Blair and New Labour, a project which pushed Labour to the centre. At the 1997 general election, it fielded 639 candidates, securing 46 MPs, the greatest number that the Liberals had had since 1929. These were concentrated in Southwest England, Southwest London, and areas of Scotland.

Although Blair's Labour won a landslide victory in 1997 and did not require a coalition government, Blair was interested in cooperation with the Lib Dems. In July 1997 he invited Ashdown and other senior Lib Dems to join a Cabinet Committee on constitutional affairs. Privately, Blair offered the Liberal Democrats a coalition but later backed down amid fears that it would split his own Cabinet. The joint Committee launched the Independent Commission on the Voting System in December; its report, published in October 1998, proposed the change from the first past the post electoral system to an alternative vote top-up system. This was not the Lib Dems preferred option—they wanted full proportional representation—although Ashdown hailed it as "a historic step forward". Many Lib Dems were concerned by Ashdown's growing closeness with Labour; aware of this, he stepped down as party leader in 1999. Before he did so, the party took part in the 1999 elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. In both, the Lib Dems came fourth and became Labour's junior coalition partners.

### Charles Kennedy and Menzies Campbell (1999–2007)

The MP Simon Hughes was initially seen as Ashdown's most likely successor, but was defeated in the contest by Charles Kennedy. To reduce the impact of more leftist members who tended to dominate at conferences, Kennedy proposed that all members—rather than just conference delegates—should vote for the party's federal executive and federal policy committees. In 2001, Kennedy suspended the Joint Cabinet Committee with Labour. The media characterised him as "Inaction Man" and accused him of lacking a clear identity and political purpose; later criticism also focused on his alcoholism. In the 2001 general election, the party fielded 639 candidates and made a net gain of 6, bringing its total of seats to 52.

Following the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States and the launch of the U.S.-led War on Terror, the Liberal Democrat MPs backed the government's decision to participate in the United States invasion of Afghanistan. The party was more critical of Blair's decision to participate in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003; Kennedy joined the large anti-war march in London. With the Conservatives backing the Labour government's decision to go to war, the Lib Dems were the only major party opposing it. In following years, Lib Dem MPs increasingly voted against the Labour government on a range of issues. Much of this Lib Dem opposition to the government came from their members in the House of Lords. In the 2003 local elections, the party secured about 30% of the vote, its highest ever result.

In 2004, *The Orange Book* anthology was published. Written largely by centre-right economists in the party, it sparked discussions about Liberal Democrat philosophy and brought criticism from the party's social-liberal wing. In the 2005 general election, the Lib Dems secured 62 seats, the most the Liberals had had since 1923. Kennedy however faced growing calls within the party to resign after admitting that he had been treated for alcoholism; in January 2006 he stepped down under pressure even though his admission wasn't damaging to the Lib Dems' public support. In retrospect the move to oust Kennedy was seen as a "graceless" move and a turning point for the Lib Dems, who after 2010 would lose many of the left-leaning voters that Kennedy won over from Labour in 2005, "reeling in disgust from the decision to go into coalition" with the Conservatives (which Kennedy staunchly opposed).

In March 2006, Menzies Campbell succeeded Kennedy as party leader. Campbell was not popular with voters and faced a resurgent Conservative Party under new leader David Cameron; in the May 2007 local elections the party experienced a net loss of nearly 250 seats. In that year's Scottish Parliament election, the Scottish National Party (SNP) secured the largest vote and the Lib Dem/Labour coalition ended. Campbell was frustrated at the constant media focus on the fact that he was in his late sixties; in October he resigned and Vince Cable became acting leader.

### Nick Clegg and coalition with the Conservatives (2007–2015)

In December 2007, Nick Clegg narrowly beat Chris Huhne to take the party's leadership. Clegg's reshuffle of the leadership team was seen by many as a shift to the right; under Clegg, the party moved away from the social democratic focus it displayed previously. It rebranded itself as a party that would cut rather than raise taxes and dropped its hard pro-EU position. In the 2008 local elections it gained 34 seats, beating Labour in terms of vote share. The following year, the party was damaged by the expenses scandal as several Lib Dem MPs and peers were found to have misused their expenses; Campbell for example was revealed to have claimed nearly £10,000 in expenses for luxury home furnishings. In the build-up to the 2010 general election, Clegg took part in the UK's first televised party leaders debate; he was generally considered to have performed well, with pundits referring to an ensuing "Cleggmania".

In the election, the Lib Dems secured 23% of the vote and 57 seats; the Conservatives were the largest party but lacked a majority. The Conservatives and Lib Dems formed a coalition government, with Clegg becoming Deputy Prime Minister. Four other Lib Dems—Cable, Huhne, Danny Alexander, and David Laws—entered the coalition Cabinet. Of the 57 Liberal Democrat MPs, only two refused to support the Conservative Coalition agreement, with former party leader Charles Kennedy and Manchester Withington MP John Leech both rebelling against. Many Lib Dems opposed the move, with some favouring a coalition deal with Labour. As part of the coalition agreement, the Conservatives agreed to Lib Dem demands to introduce elected health boards, put forward a Fixed Term Parliament Bill, and end income tax for those earning less than £10,000 a year. The Conservatives also agreed to shelve their plans to replace the Human Rights Act 1998 with a proposed British Bill of Rights. The Conservatives refused to agree to Lib Dem demands for a referendum on proportional representation, instead offering a referendum on a switch from first-past-the-post to the Alternative Vote system. The coalition introduced an emergency budget to attack the fiscal deficit.

After joining the coalition poll ratings for the party fell, particularly following the government's support for raising the cap on tuition fees with Liberal Democrat MPs voting 27 for, 21 against and 8 abstaining. The Liberal Democrats had made opposing tuition fees a major message of their campaign, with all of the party's MPs, including Nick Clegg, signing the Vote for Students pledge to oppose any increase in student tuition fees prior to the 2010 general election. Clegg later made a formal apology for breaking this promise in September 2012. Shortly after the 2015 general election, Liberal Democrat leadership contender Norman Lamb conceded that Clegg's broken pledge on university tuition had proven costly.

In the May 2011 local elections and the elections for the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament, the Liberal Democrats suffered heavy defeats. Clegg admitted that the party had taken "big knocks" due to a perception that the coalition government had returned to the Thatcherism of the 1980s.

As part of the deal that formed the coalition, it was agreed to hold a referendum on the Alternative Vote, in which the Conservatives would campaign for First Past the Post and the Liberal Democrats for Alternative Vote. The referendum, held on 5 May 2011, resulted in First Past the Post being chosen over Alternative Vote by approximately two-thirds of voters. In May 2011, Clegg revealed plans to make the House of Lords a mainly elected chamber, limiting the number of peers to 300, 80% of whom would be elected with a third of that 80% being elected every 5 years by single transferable vote. In August 2012, Clegg announced that attempts to reform the House of Lords would be abandoned due to opposition for the proposals by backbench Conservative MPs. Claiming the coalition agreement had been broken, Clegg stated that Liberal Democrat MPs would no longer support changes to the House of Commons boundaries for the 2015 general election. The Lib Dem Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne in 2011 announced plans for halving UK carbon emissions by 2025 as part of the "Green Deal" which was in the 2010 Liberal Democrat manifesto.

The Lib Dems lost over 300 councillors in the 2012 local elections, leaving them with fewer than 3,000 for the first time in the party's history. In June 2012 it was reported that membership of the party had fallen by around 20% since joining the coalition.

In February 2013, the party won a by-election in Eastleigh, the Hampshire constituency that had previously been held by the former minister, Chris Huhne. The party's candidate, Mike Thornton, had been a local councillor for the party, and held the seat. In eighteen other by-elections held throughout the 2010–2015 Parliament, the party lost its deposit in 11; in the Rochester and Strood by-election held on 20 November 2014, it came fifth polling 349 votes or 0.9% of the total votes cast, the worst result in the history of the party.

In the 2013 local elections, the Liberal Democrats lost over 100 seats council seats. In the 2014 local elections, they lost another 307 council seats and ten of their eleven seats in the European Parliament in the 2014 European elections.

In the 2015 general election, the party lost 25 seats in the House of Commons, leaving them with only 32 MPs. Neither the Conservatives nor Labour were able to win an outright majority, both tied on 273 seats.

## Ideology

The Liberal Democrats have an ideology that draws on both the liberal and social democratic traditions. The party is primarily social liberal, supporting redistribution but sceptical of increasing the power of the state, emphasising the link between equality and liberty. The party supports investment and progressive taxation, but also promotes civil liberties and a less centralised economy. This distinguishes the party from many liberal parties elsewhere in Europe that are instead dominated by classical liberalism. By comparison, the Liberal Democrats support a mixed economy and have sometimes opposed privatisation.

The party spans the centre and centre-left, and has emphasised each aspect at different times. The public have traditionally viewed the party as centre-left, though during the Cameron–Clegg coalition they were seen as centrist. On economic issues, the party has usually been positioned between the Conservatives and the Labour Party, though typically closer to the Labour Party. There is a degree of ideological diversity among members of the Liberal Democrats, with a wide range of opinions on most subjects.

A key ideological influence on the Liberal Democrats is Leonard Hobhouse, and there is substantial overlap between the party's platform and the form of social democracy advocated by Anthony Crosland in *The Future of Socialism*. The party's egalitarianism is based on the concept of equality of opportunity and have been sceptical of positive discrimination, including in their process for selecting political candidates. The party has frequently debated the introduction of all-women shortlists in selection, but not implemented them.

The Liberal Democrats support a range of constitutional reforms, including by advocating a decentralised federal structure for the United Kingdom, including devolving power to the regions of England. The party supported devolution to Scotland and Wales enacted by the Labour government under Tony Blair. The party has consistently supported electoral reform to produce more proportional results. On social issues, the party is liberal and progressive. It has consistently supported LGBT rights and drug reform. The party is internationalist and pro-European. They have consistently supported policies of European integration, including long-term advocacy of the United Kingdom adopting the euro, though they have opposed the establishing of a European army. Both before and after the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, the party has advocated for the United Kingdom's continued membership of the European Union. The party support liberal interventionism. They supported the war in Afghanistan, later opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq due to its lack of support from the United Nations. The party has also faced internal division over the issue of nuclear weapons.

The party has a number of factions representing different strains of liberal thought. Although the social liberals, represented by the Social Liberal Forum (often abbreviated to the SLF), are the majority, factions that advocate for more economically liberal positions include Liberal Reform (often abbreviated to LR) and the "Orange Bookers", named after *The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism*; *The Orange Book* is most often associated with former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg. Additionally, there is the centre-left Beveridge Group, inspired by William Beveridge. The Beveridge Group has been associated with both social liberals and social democrats within the party, including former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy.

## Organisation and structure

The Liberal Democrats are a federal party of the parties of England, Scotland, and Wales. The English and Scottish parties are further split into regions. The parliamentary parties of the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly form semi-autonomous units within the party. The leaders in the House of Commons and the Scottish Parliament are the leaders of the federal party and the Scottish Party; the leaders in the other two chambers, and the officers of all parliamentary parties, are elected from their own number. Co-ordination of all party activities across all federated groups is undertaken through the Federal Board. Chaired by the party president, its 30+ members includes representatives from each of the groups and democratically elected representatives.

In the first quarter of 2008, the party received [£1.1 million in donations and have total borrowings and unused credit facilities of £1.1 ;million (the "total debt" figure reported by the Electoral Commission includes, for example, unused overdraft facilities). This compares to Labour's £3.1 ;million in donations and £17.8 million of borrowing/credit facilities, and the Conservatives' £5.7 ;million in donations and £12.1 million of borrowing/credit facilities.

Specified Associated Organisations (SAOs) review and input policies, representing groups including: ethnic minorities (LDCRE), women (WLD), the LGBT community (LGBT+ Liberal Democrats), youth and students (Young Liberals), engineers and scientists (ALDES), parliamentary candidates (PCA) and local councillors (ALDC). Others can become Associated Organisations (AOs) as campaigning or representative groups in the party, such as the Green Liberal Democrats (GLD), the Liberal Democrat European Group (LDEG) and the Liberal Democrat Disability Association. There are many other groups that are not formally affiliated to the party, including Social Liberal Forum (SLF) and Liberal Reform.

Like the Conservatives, the Lib Dems organise in Northern Ireland. Although they do not contest elections in the province, they work with the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, described as its sister party and *de facto* agreeing to support the Alliance in elections. There is a separate local party operating in Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Liberal Democrats. It is also a sister party of the Liberal Party of Gibraltar and contests the South-West England constituency at European Parliamentary elections on a joint ticket with them taking place six on the party list.

The party is a member of Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party. Their 1 MEP sits in the ALDE group in the European Parliament. The party colour is amber, but it is referred to as yellow in the party's style guide. The party anthem is the old Liberal's "The Land" while its slogan is "Build a Brighter Future". The party headquarters are at 8–10 Great George Street London SW1P 3AE.

## Support

In the 2005 general election, the party was endorsed by *The Independent*. Cook noted that in the build-up to the 2010 election, most mainstream press—which was aligned with either the Conservatives or Labour—was "voraciously hostile" to the Lib Dems. In that election, it nevertheless attracted the endorsement of *The Guardian* and *The Observer*.

### Finances

Whereas Labour gained funding through its links to trade unions and the Conservatives through big business, the Liberal Democrats have relied on funds raised by the subscriptions and donations provided by its members. The party had some major donors, such as Lord Jacobs, who gave it around £1 million over the course of twenty years until he resigned in 2008. In some years, it struggled to cover its costs; in 2008 for instance it made a loss of £670,000.

### Membership

In its early years, the caricature of Liberal Democrat members was that of "sandal-wearing, bearded eccentrics obsessed by the minutiae of electoral reform". Based on their 1999 survey of Liberal Democrat members, Whiteley noted that although party members shared many of the same attitudes as the party's voters, there were also "striking differences", namely in that members were "older, more middle-class and better educated" than the voters. Their survey found that party membership was 54% male; and was dominated by middle-class people, with working-class individuals comprising only 5% of members (in contrast to 30% of Labour and 19% of Conservative members at that time). The average age was 59, and 58% of members were aged 56 or over. A third were retired, and a third in full-time employment. A majority worked, or had previously worked, in the non-profit sector. 42% possessed a degree, which was higher than among Labour (30%) and Conservative (19%) members at that time. 65% of members considered themselves religious, with 70% of those being Anglican, 15% Methodist, and 11% Roman Catholic.

As of 1999, 43% of members had previously belonged to the Liberal Party, 14% to the Social Democratic Party, and 42% had joined with no previous political affiliation. 21% of members had joined because of their social contacts, such as friends, family, and colleagues, who were already members. Around 40% of members stated that they joined because they agreed with the party's principles; a further 16% said they joined because of its policies. The majority of members were largely inactive in party activities, with only 22% of those polled indicating that they were willing to attend party meetings.

The senior ranks of the party had long been heavily male-dominated; after the 1997 general election, for instance, only three of its 46 MPs were women. Reinforcing its "male, middle-class image", after the 2010 election, 40% of Liberal Democrat MPs were privately educated.

### Voters

The 1997 British Election Study Survey found that the average Liberal Democrat voter was aged 47, with 52% between the ages of 18 and 45. 16% of Lib Dem voters at that time possessed a degree. 23% were working class or blue collar workers, a much higher percentage than was found among the party's membership. The survey found that Liberal Democrat voters shared many attitudes with the members; these voters overwhelmingly desired proportional representation and 63% backed EU membership. Where the voters differed from the members was on the issue of foreign aid; over half of members wanted to increase the UK's foreign aid budget, whereas only a third of Liberal Democrat voters agreed.

Analysing voting patterns from the 1990s, Whiteley et al. argued that highly educated people were more likely than average to vote Liberal Democrat, that older people were less likely than average to vote Liberal Democrat, and that class, gender, or ethnicity had no impact on the tendency to vote for the party.

## Electoral results

From the Liberal Party, the Liberal Democrats inherited a strong base in Wales and Scotland. In 2010, Cook noted that the party's safe seats "do not fit a very homogeneous pattern", being scattered amidst rural, middle-class suburban, and inner city areas. A key feature of the party's electoral strategy has been foregrounding community politics. Examining the survey evidence, Whiteley et al. argued that the strength of grassroots party activism in a particular area had a big impact on the vote share that the Liberal Democrats received there.

### General elections

Throughout its history, the first past the post system has prevented the Liberal Democrats from receiving a share of parliamentary seats that reflects their share of the vote.

In the 1992 general election, the Lib Dems succeeded the SDP–Liberal Alliance as the third most popular party, behind Labour and the Conservatives. Their popularity never rose to the levels attained by the Alliance, but in later years their seat count rose far above the Alliance's peak, a feat that has been credited to more intelligent targeting of vulnerable seats. The vote percentage for the Alliance in 1987 and the Lib Dems in 2005 is similar, yet the Lib Dems won 62 seats to the Alliance's 22. This was because in 1987, the Alliance vote was fairly evenly spread throughout the country, whereas in 2005 the Liberal Democrat vote was concentrated in particular areas, allowing them to win nearly three times as many parliamentary seats as in 1987 despite getting a slightly lower share of the overall vote.

The first-past-the-post electoral system used in UK general elections is not suited to parties whose vote is evenly divided across the country, resulting in those parties achieving a lower proportion of seats in the Commons than their proportion of the popular vote (see table and graph). The Lib Dems and their Liberal and SDP predecessors have suffered especially, particularly in the 1980s when their electoral support was greatest while the disparity between the votes and the number of MPs returned to parliament was significantly large. The increase in their number of seats in 1997, 2001 and 2005 was attributed to the weakness of the Conservatives and the success of their election strategist Chris Rennard. Lib Dems state that they want 'three-party politics' in the Commons; the most realistic chance of power with first past the post is for the party to be "the kingmakers" in a hung parliament. Party leaders often set out their terms for forming a coalition in such an event—Nick Clegg stated in 2008 that the policy for the 2010 general election was to reform elections, parties and Parliament in a "constitutional convention".

### Local elections

The party had control of 31 councils in 2008, having held 29 councils prior to the 2008 election. In the 2008 local elections they gained 25% of the vote, placing them ahead of Labour and increasing their control by 34 to more than 4,200 council seats—21% of the total number of seats. In council elections held in May 2011, the Liberal Democrats suffered heavy defeats in the Midlands and North of England. They also lost heavily in the Welsh assembly and Scottish Parliament. In local elections held in May 2012, the Lib Dems lost more than 300 councillors, leaving them with fewer than 3000 for the first time in the party's history. In the 2013 local elections, they lost more councillors. In the 2014 local elections they lost over 300 councillors and the control of two local governments.

### European elections

As a pro-European party, the Liberal Democrats usually tend to fare badly at European Parliament elections. In the 2004 local elections their share of the vote was 29% (placing them second, ahead of Labour) and 14.9% in the simultaneous European Parliament elections (putting them in fourth place behind the UK Independence Party). The results of the 2009 European elections]were similar with the party achieving a vote of 28% in the county council elections yet achieving only 13.7% in the Europeans despite the elections taking place on the same day. The 2009 elections did however see the party gain one seat from UKIP in the East Midlands region taking the number of representatives in the parliament up to 11. In 2014 the party lost ten seats, leaving them with one MEP.

Since 2004, in the European Parliament, the party sits with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) political group, which favoured further strengthening European integration. The group's leader for seven and a half years was the South West England MEP Graham Watson, who was also the first Liberal Democrat to be elected to the European Parliament when he won the old Somerset and North Devon constituency in 1994. He remains the current leader of the ALDE party, however he is expected to stand down due to losing his MEP seat in 2014. The group's current leader is the former Prime Minister of Belgium Guy Verhofstadt.

### Scottish Parliament

The inaugural Scottish Parliament election was held in 1999 and resulted in the Scottish Liberal Democrats winning a total of 17 seats. The Scottish Liberal Democrats subsequently formed a coalition government with Scottish Labour. Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace became deputy first minister of the new Scottish Executive, a position he held until his resignation as party leader in 2005. Wallace served briefly as acting first minister following the death in office of Donald Dewar in 2000 and the resignation of Henry McLeish in 2001.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats again won 17 seats in the 2003 Scottish Parliament election and again formed a coalition government with Scottish Labour. Nicol Stephen was elected party leader in 2005. Stephen served as deputy first minister for two years. The Scottish Liberal Democrats exited government in 2007 despite losing only one seat in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election. The Scottish National Party emerged from the election as the largest party and formed a minority administration. Nicol Stephen resigned as party leader the following year.

Tavish Scott was elected party leader in 2008. Scott resigned following what he described as "disastrous" results in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, in which the Scottish Liberal Democrats were reduced to five seats. Scott claimed that the party had been "damaged" in Scotland by its decision to form a coalition government with the Conservative Party in 2010. He further blamed the coalition government's austerity programme. Willie Rennie, who became party leader in 2011, also blamed the unpopularity of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition.

### Senedd elections

The first elections to the newly created National Assembly for Wales were in 1999; the Liberal Democrats took six seats in the inaugural Assembly; Welsh Labour won a plurality of seats, but without an overall majority. In October 2000, following a series of close votes, the parties formed a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lib%E2%80%93Lab\_pact coalition], with the Liberal Democrat leader in the assembly, Michael German, becoming the Deputy First Minister. The deal lasted until the 2003 election, when Labour won enough seats to be able to govern outright. The party had polled consistently in the first four elections to the National Assembly, returning six representatives in the first three elections and five in the 2011 election, thereby establishing itself as the fourth party in Wales behind Labour, the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru. Since 2008, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats is Kirsty Williams, the Assembly Member for Brecon and Radnorshire, the Assembly's first female party leader.

## Leadership

### Leaders

* 1 Joint interim leader, as leader of the Liberal Party before the merger
* 2 Joint interim leader, as leader of the Social Democratic Party before the merger
* 3 Acting leader between the resignation of Charles Kennedy on 7 January 2006 and his own election on 2 March 2006
* 4 Acting leader between the resignation of Menzies Campbell on 15 October 2007 and the election of Nick Clegg on 18 December 2007

### Deputy Leaders

* Russell Johnston, (1988–1992)
* Alan Beith, (1992–2003)
* Menzies Campbell, (2003–2006)
* Vince Cable, (2006–2010)
* Simon Hughes, (2010–2014)
* Malcolm Bruce, (2014–present)