Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2015

Background

In the 2015 general election, the Liberal Democrats lost 49 seats, reducing the party to eight seats in the House of Commons.

Many prominent party leaders and veteran MPs lost bids for re-election, including Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander; Business Secretary and former interim leader Vince Cable; Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey; Charles Kennedy, who had been party leader from 1999 to 2006 and had been a member of Parliament for 32 years; and former deputy party leader Simon Hughes, who had also served in Parliament for 32 years. Ministers Jo Swinson, Lynne Featherstone, Paul Burstow and Jenny Willott were also among the Lib Dem MPs who lost their seats.

Nick Clegg, the party's leader and Deputy Prime Minister in the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government of 2010 to 2015, was re-elected in his Sheffield constituency, but resigned as party leader the morning after the election. In an emotional speech, he stated: "I must take responsibility and therefore I announce that I will be resigning as leader of the Liberal Democrats."

Under the rules of the Liberal Democrat parliamentary party, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats serves as an interim leader for the Liberal Democrats until a new leader can be elected. However, this position had been vacant since the election due to the retirement of Malcolm Bruce. The party president, Sal Brinton, a member of the House of Lords, was the de facto interim leader.

After the election, the party experienced a surge in membership; 61,000 party members were entitled to vote, including over 16,500 new members who had joined before the close of nominations for the leadership.

The rules of the contest

The timetable for a leadership election was determined by the party's Federal Executive, under Article 10.4 of the Liberal Democrat constitution, and a meeting was held to discuss this on 9 May 2015.

Liberal Democrat leadership elections use the alternative vote (instant-runoff) system, the single-winner version of the single transferable vote. However, as only two candidates stood, it effectively became a simple plurality vote with all Liberal Democrat party members being entitled to vote under a "one member, one vote" system.

Article 10.5 of the Liberal Democrat constitution requires that any candidate wishing to stand must be a Member of Parliament and must have the support of:

The election itself was overseen by Electoral Reform Services, the commercial arm of the Electoral Reform Society.

Declined

Tim Farron

Norman Lamb

Public polling and surveys

A survey by LibDemVoice.org of self-selecting 1065 members out of 1900+ registered on the forum (out of a total party membership of 57,773) showed Tim Farron on 71%, with 29% preferring Norman Lamb for leader. LibDemVoice do not claim that their survey is representative of the total party membership but they claim they "are the largest independent samples of the views of Lib Dem members across the country, and have in the past offered accurate guides to what party members think."

On the day the results were due, Farron was the bookmakers' favourite.

Campaign

Farron was seen as the candidate of the left of the party, while Lamb was seen as representing the politics of the party's prior involvement in coalition government, although others have argued the candidates' policy differences were minor.

Farron's religious beliefs and voting record on abortion and gay rights came under scrutiny. Lamb suspended two members of his campaign team over a survey of party members that broke party rules that highlighted views the Lamb campaign consider "illiberal".

In comments during the campaign, Tim Farron made reference to rebranding the party, but emphasised that in his view this needed to be more substantial than a simple superficial change: "I think rebranding ourselves, repositioning ourselves is very important. We've got to be absolutely radical about that but 18 months of a constitutional wrangle as we Tipp-Ex out a couple of words and add in another one in the constitution strikes me as a bit of a waste of time."

During the campaign Tim Farron was asked what role former Chief Executive, Chris Rennard, would have under his leadership. He replied, "I have no intention of appointing him to any role in the party."

Questions and answers put to the candidates