I’ll win back voters who left us, says Farron in first speech as Lib Dem leader
TIM FARRON, the newly elected Liberal Democrat leader, has claimed he will be able to win back “millions” of voters, despite the party’s disastrous showing at the general election.
The former party president beat opponent Norman Lamb by 56.5 per cent to 43.5 per cent in the contest to replace Nick Clegg. Mr Farron said on Twitter that his job now was to “turn millions of liberals throughout the UK into Liberal Democrats”.
He told activists in his victory speech last night that the party’s comeback would start at next May’s local and devolved elections.
He said: “Those elections are utterly critical. They matter to me just as much as 2020. And they are the first staging posts of the comeback.
“Ward by ward, council by council, seat by seat, we will fight and we will win. And if the Tories are really determined to make everyone have a metro mayor, we’ll just have to win those elections too.
“It will take hard work, guts and bloody-mindedness. There will be defeats and injustices. Winning has never been easy. We have no automatic right to bounce back. We have to do it our- selves. But we will. I’m going to make sure of it.”
Nearly 34,000 members voted in the leadership election, a turnout of 56 per cent. Mr Farron secured 19,137 votes and Mr Lamb 14,760.
Mr Lamb congratulated the victor and said he would make a “fantastic” party leader who would champion social justice. Mr Clegg said his successor would pick up the party and get it fighting again following its election drubbing in which it lost all but eight of its 57 Commons seats after five years in coalition with the Conservatives.
He added: “Tim Farron is a remarkable campaigner and a man of the utmost integrity and conviction. He is a natural communicator with a rare ability to inspire people and rally them to our cause.”
Yesterday, a friend of Mr Farron said the 45-year-old would be able to draw on all the self-confidence he needed as a singer in a New Romantic band three decades ago.
Dean Swift, his former keyboard player, said Mr Farron would have learnt “not to fear rejection”, adding: “Tim has always been full of confidence and self-belief, plus he is the nicest person you could ever wish to meet.”
The Telegraph disclosed on Wednesday how Mr Farron planned to tell the party’s 70 staff to spend time working with charities “to sharpen their campaigning skills”.