Kennedy: Lib Dems ‘well poised’ for new Parliament
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said today that his party was “well poised” to provide the “real alternative” to the Labour government.
Presiding over the best performance of a third party in a general election for eighty years, Mr Kennedy thanked all his colleagues who had “helped achieve so much”.
Addressing journalist on the steps of Liberal Democrat headquarters in London, he said he was looking forward to welcoming his new parliamentary colleagues, who were helping the Liberal Democrats become “more like the society we seek to represent”.
Mr Kennedy congratulated Mr Blair, but said his victory on “such a low level of support” raised a “serious question” about parliamentary democracy.
Referring to Labour’s slashed majority, he said that the election would “clearly result in a new House of Commons, which I think will be much healthier” than that of the last eight years.
“The Government can’t ride roughshod” over people’s views, Mr Kennedy said.
He added that the Lib Dems were “well poised to begin the task to provide the real alternative to this Labour government.”
With 62 seats, the Liberal Democrats have ten more MPs than in 2001. Earlier Mr Kennedy hailed the era of three party politics.
“The era of three-party politics right across the UK is now with us,” Mr Kennedy declared after securing his own seat in the early hours of the morning.
He added: ” I think it’s a healthy development and I think that what we are seeing taking place in terms of the progress of the Liberal Democrats right across the land.”
The Lib Dems had hoped to secure some top Tory seats, but largely failed to achieve what the media described as the “decapitation” of the official opposition, with education spokesman Tim Collins the biggest scalp.
