Clegg: Lib Dems have taken ‘big knocks’

Lib Dem leader admits party taking brunt of anger at coalition amid worst local elections performance in 30 years The Liberal Democrats appear to have suffered their worst performance at the polls in 30 years, suffering heavy losses across the north of England, Scotland and Wales. Nick Clegg admitted his party was taking the brunt of the blame for a perception that the coalition government is dragging Britain back to the Thatcherism of the 1980s. The Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister said the party had taken “big knocks” in the local elections. “Clearly what happened last night – especially in those parts of the country, Scotland, Wales, the great cities of the north, where there are real anxieties about the deficit reduction plans we are having to put in place … we are clearly getting the brunt of the blame,” he told reporters. “To the many families in those parts of the country especially there are some very strong memories of what life was like under Thatcherism of the 1980s and that’s what they fear they are returning to. We need to get up, dust ourselves down and move on.” Coalition ministers insisted the Lib Dem-Conservative government would refocus on its work – next week Clegg and David Cameron will launch a new coalition document marking achievements in the year since it was formed – but recriminations over the Liberal Democrats’ drubbing, and in anticipation of a humiliating defeat in the AV referendum, have already begun. The former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown told the Guardian the days when the coalition was “lubricated by a large element of goodwill and trust” were gone. The Liberal Democrats have lost swaths of seats in English councils, the Welsh assembly and four out of the six seats in the Scottish parliament declared so far. They lost control of Sheffield council – the city of Clegg’s constituency – were ousted from Liverpool, Hull and Stockport, and lost every Manchester seat they stood in. Overall, they got their lowest share of the vote in three decades. Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “This is of course the first time the Liberal Democrats have had the experience of being in government in Westminster. “It tends to be the case that parties in government tend to lose ground in local elections … given the difficult decisions we’ve had to make, some voters have decided to vote for others.” Paul Scriven, the Liberal Democrat leader of Sheffield council, said: “Maybe in three or four years time, people will look back and say they were a little bit harsh to the Liberal Democrats.” Labour was celebrating a resurgence in English local elections, retaking the northern cities they lost after the Iraq war and during the most unpopular days of the Labour government. Symbolically, the party also made important inroads into the south, winning Gravesham, while the Lib Dems lost control of Bristol as Labour gained. But even its gains in the Welsh assembly, at the expense of Plaid Cymru, could not ease the pain of the losses in Scotland, where the SNP has had spectacular success so far, winning 24 seats. The BBC is reporting that SNP could take control of the Scottish parliament once the second stage of counting, a proportional list vote, is completed. The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said: “I’m pleased by the results in English local government, I’m pleased by the results in Wales, but I’m obviously disappointed by the results in Scotland … we have to learn our own lessons from what the public are saying there. “I think the results we’ve seen in English local government up and down this country are sending a clear message to this government and the Liberal Democrats.” Michael Moore, the Lib Dem Scotland secretary, told the BBC: “I am not going to duck the fact that this is a very, very disappointing evening for us in Scotland and around the country as well. “We have been involved in taking some very tough decisions over the course of this parliament. This is a difficult moment for some of our colleagues to be standing for election. “The big story in Scotland is how on earth the Labour party lost what was a massive lead in the opinion polls and are now losing some of their most able frontbenchers in seat after seat across

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