ANKARA
Tim Farron on Thursday announced his bid for the leadership of Britain’s centrist Liberal Democrats Party.
The former party president, who is widely seen to represent the left of the party, said, “We suffered a heavy defeat. Now we face the fight of our life: To prove we are relevant to people across the country, to show them what we believe and why we matter.”
The Liberal Democrats lost all but eight of their 56 seats in last week’s general election – the party’s worst result since it was formed in 1988.
Then Lib Dem leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg resigned after the “catastrophic results.”
After the 2010 election, the Lib Dems went into coalition with the center-right Conservative Party – despite running on a left-of-center election platform.
Another reason for their electoral catastrophe was their U-turn on tuition fees, pledging to abolish them in their campaign, only to triple them in office – a move Farron opposed at the time.
This goes some way to explaining how he won 52 percent of the vote in his constituency while his party was obliterated across the country.
Farron has already received the support of Scottish and Welsh leader Willie Rennie and Kirsty Williams.
“To move forward, we need a fresh start. With that in mind, we call on Tim Farron to stand to be our next federal leader,” they said in a joint statement released Monday.
“We believe he is the right person to rebuild our party, inspire and lead us into next year’s election campaigns.”
The only other person to have announced his candidacy for the party leadership is Norman Lamb, a health minister under the coalition government who is considered a centrist.
Lamb has received the support of Tom Brake, one of the party's eight MPs elected on May 11.
"I think he will be a good leader, and will be able to begin restructuring the party,” Brake said.
The winner of the Lib Dem leadership election will be announced on July 16, 2015.
