Clegg delighted as Lib Dems pip Labour

Written by Hélène Mulholland and published in Guardian Unlimited on Fri 2nd May 2008

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg hailed today's local election results as a "strong performance" as figures showed his party had beaten Labour on share of the overall vote for only the second time in the party's history.

With almost all English council results now declared, the Lib Dems have notched up 24 extra councillors and made one overall gain in the number of councils they control (11).

Today's results mean the party now has control of four northern cities: Sheffield, Newcastle, Hull and Liverpool.

In Wales, where 18 of the 22 councils have declared, the party has added 14 to its tally of councillors, bringing the total to 42, and strengthened its lead in Cardiff.

But predictions based on results from nearly 600 council wards gave the Lib Dems a significant boost as the projected share of votes across England and Wales showed the party was set to beat Labour by one percentage point.

Figures suggest a surprisingly strong lead for the Conservatives (44%), followed by the Lib Dems (25%), ahead of Labour (24%).

Today's results are the first real test of Clegg's leadership since he took over the reins in December.

The Lib Dem leader seized on the projections to declare "a very strong set of results for the party" which he said were proof that the party was regaining momentum under his watch.

He said: "Against the predictions of most pundits, we have successfully defended the record number of council seats that we won in 2004 - the best ever year for Liberal Democrats - and for only the second time in our history, we have outpolled Labour."

However, the Lib Dem position in second place ahead of Labour masks the fact that the party's share of votes is still one percentage point (26%) down on the same elections four years ago, when the Lib Dems yielded a strong polling in the wake of the Iraq war under the leadership of Charles Kennedy.

Among the party's successes was the return of Sheffield to Lib Dem hands - the council which contains Clegg's Sheffield Hallam's constituency seat - after winning six additional seats last night.

The party also regained control of Kingston-upon-Hull, which slipped out of its hands last year after two councillors defected.

The Lib Dems also won control of Burnley and St Albans, and narrowly clung on to Liverpool city council, when an independent switched allegiances, giving the Lib Dems a majority of one.

The party's flagship council had been ranked as the worst-performing authority in the country in the latest round of performance assessments.

The party is just one seat short of overall control in a number of councils including Oldham, Warrington and Cheltenham.

It was not all good news for the Lib Dems, however, as it emerged that the party lost Pendle and West Lindsey.

John Curtice, politics professor at Strathclyde University, said Labour's woes had helped the Liberal Democrats.

"The fact that the Labour party have done so badly is Nick Clegg's salvation," he said.

Clegg denied the results were disappointing. He said: "We were 13% a few months ago, we're now 25%. We've overtaken Labour, we've taken seats off the Conservatives, we've taken seats off Labour.

"Every time I opened a newspaper in the last month I was being told it would even be a good night if we lost a number of seats; we've won seats. If you call that a disappointment then we inhabit different planets. I am actually delighted, we are regaining momentum."

The Lib Dem party chief executive, Lord Chris Rennard, lauded today's results, which he loyally attributed to the new leadership.

He said "[Nick Clegg] has contributed a huge amount to this turnaround. Our successes have far exceeded expectations that we privately had and that anyone in the media had.

"Last night we polled 25%. That is stonkingly good in four months."