UK coalition partner in turmoil after EU poll losses

By Kylie MacLellan

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg came under heightened pressure on Wednesday to quit the leadership of his party after his Liberal Democrats lost all but one of their 11 seats in the European Parliament.

Influential Liberal Democrat Matthew Oakeshott, who has a seat in parliament’s House of Lords, resigned from the party on Wednesday calling for Clegg to stand down too.

If Clegg were to face a leadership challenge, it could throw the future of the government led by Conservative David Cameron into doubt less than a year before the 2015 national election.

Clegg has repeatedly said he will not give up the Liberal Democrat leadership.

But on Wednesday, Oakeshott said: “The party is heading for disaster if it keeps Nick Clegg.”

In a statement posted on Twitter, he added: “Nick Clegg’s dire approval ratings year after year in all national polls, and Thursday’s appalling council and European election results is crystal clear: we must change the leader to give Liberal Democrat MPs their best chance to win in 2015.”

According to the party’s constitution, a leadership election can be triggered by a vote of no confidence in Clegg from a majority of Liberal Democrat members of parliament. It could also be called if at least 75 local parties back such a contest.

An online petition by the LibDems4Change group calling for a new leader has attracted signatures from nearly 400 activists, while the local party in Cambridge is among those planning to hold a meeting to discuss Clegg’s future.

A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats said Oakeshott’s decision to go was “understandable in the circumstances”.

“These have been a difficult few days after a disappointing set of election results. But now is the time to get on with the business of government and getting our message out,” he said.

Clegg had earlier criticised Oakeshott, accusing him of seeking to undermine his leadership by paying for opinion polls that showed Liberal Democrats would lose seats next year.

“It is wholly unacceptable for people in a campaigning political party, facing very, very difficult elections … to find out now with hindsight a senior member of the party far from going out and trying to win votes was spending money and time seeking to undermine the fortunes of the party,” Clegg said.

Such is the turmoil within the party that Business Secretary Vince Cable, a Liberal Democrat minister who has been named by local media as a potential successor, interrupted a trip to China to scold Oakeshott on Tuesday.

“Lord Oakeshott’s actions are totally inexcusable and unacceptable. I have made it very clear repeatedly that he does not speak or act for me,” Cable said.

“Public speculation about the leadership is an unwelcome distraction … There is no leadership issue as far as I’m concerned.”

(Additional reporting by William James; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge/Ruth Pitchford)

UK coalition partner in turmoil after EU poll losses