"more clearly rejected the idea. Huhne and then Clegg submitted their formal nomination paperwork. Clegg attracted most support from fellow MPs, although both candidates had high-profile supporters, including former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown for Clegg and former Liberal leader David Steel for Huhne. Nominations closed at 16:00 (UTC+0) on 31 October 2007. Nick Clegg took a more multilateralist line than Chris Huhne, who was opposed to the Trident ballistic missile system. Nick Clegg favoured retaining half of Trident's arsenal to use as a bargaining chip in 2010 negotiations; Chris Huhne saw saving money on the nuclear deterrent as being"
"2007 Liberal Democrats leadership election The 2007 Liberal Democrats leadership election was held following the resignation of Sir Menzies Campbell as leader on 15 October 2007, after 19 months as leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third-largest political party in the United Kingdom. Vincent Cable, the deputy leader of the parliamentary party, was acting leader until the conclusion of the leadership election. The result was announced on 18 December 2007 with Nick Clegg winning by a narrow margin of 1.2%. The resignation of Menzies Campbell came after a period of speculation about his future as party leader. This was seen"
"into the general election having changed leaders since 2005. David Cameron became Conservative leader in December 2005, replacing Michael Howard. Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister in June 2007. Nick Clegg was elected as leader of the Liberal Democrats in December 2007, succeeding Menzies Campbell who had replaced Charles Kennedy in January 2006. The last time all three main parties went into a general election with new leaders was in the 1979 election, when James Callaghan as Labour leader, Margaret Thatcher for the Conservatives, and David Steel with the then-Liberal Party took"
"of Europe. He served as a journalist for the Financial Times before becoming a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 1999. After his election to the House of Commons in 2005, Clegg served in a variety of leadership roles in the Liberal Democrats, most notably as Spokesperson for Home Affairs, before being elected to succeed Menzies Campbell as party leader in 2007. During his tenure as leader, Clegg asserted that the Liberal Democrats transcended the tradition ""left-right"" axis and labelled the party as being radical centrist in orientation. He advocated for reduced taxes, electoral reform, cuts on defence spending,"
"after 13 years in office. The opposition Conservatives led by David Cameron won the largest number of seats in the new Parliament, but fell short of the number required to secure an overall majority. Consequently, senior figures from both parties embarked on a series of make-or-break meetings with representatives from the Liberal Democrats led by Nick Clegg, aimed at forming a coalition government. As leader of the third largest party, Clegg had announced that the Liberal Democrats would enter talks with whichever party held the greater number of seats. A series of meetings with the Conservatives began shortly after the"
"a win. In the final count, the party membership chose his rival Nick Clegg by a narrow margin of 511 votes out of more than 41,000 counted. About 1,300 postal votes were caught up in the Christmas post and missed the election deadline. An unofficial check of the late papers showed Huhne had enough votes among them to hand him victory. Huhne stood by the result, saying: ""Nick Clegg won fair and square on the rules counting the ballot papers that arrived in by the deadline. There is no question of any re-run."" Following the leadership election, Clegg chose Huhne"
"2011, Clegg stated he dealt with the pressures of political office by reading novels late at night and he ""cries regularly to music"". He supports Arsenal F.C. Nick Clegg Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British former politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015 and as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. An """" liberal, Clegg served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam from 2005 to 2017 and has been associated with both socially liberal and economically liberal policies. He is"
"won but he did not believe an early election was in the national interest. In the meantime, Michael Howard had stepped down as Tory leader after the 2005 general election, being succeeded by David Cameron. In January 2006, Charles Kennedy stepped down as leader of the Liberal Democrats to be succeeded by Menzies Campbell, who himself resigned at the end of the following year to be succeeded by Nick Clegg. 2006 had seen the Tories make gains in local elections, as well as enjoying their first consistent lead of the opinion polls in 14 years. 2007 had seen both the"
"enough votes among them to hand him victory. Huhne stood by the result, saying ""Nick Clegg won fair and square on the rules counting the ballot papers that arrived in by the deadline. There is no question of any re-run."" At the close of nominations, the following had been successfully nominated. Supporters included: Supporters included: The turnout at this leadership election was over 10,000 fewer than in the 2006 election. A total of 64,727 ballot papers were issued, compared with 72,064 for the 2006 contest. 2007 Liberal Democrats leadership election The 2007 Liberal Democrats leadership election was held following the"
"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"
"backing from any political party and he was an independent candidate in every sense of the word"". His campaign also dismissed as ""sour grapes"" claims from the Labour Party that ""the only way in which the Lib Dems thought they could win the election was by presenting themselves as independent."" In the 2015 general election, the Liberal Democrats were reduced from 57 seats to 8. Clegg held his Sheffield Hallam seat with a reduced majority. After his party's result, he resigned the party leadership the day after the election. In the 2017 general election, Clegg lost to Labour candidate Jared"
"a period of increased media speculation about Sir Menzies Campbell's leadership, which the admission by Clegg did nothing to reduce and resulted in a rebuke by some of his frontbench colleagues. This followed a report from Kevin Maguire in the ""New Statesman"" that Clegg had failed to hide his disloyalty to Campbell's leadership. Campbell eventually resigned on 15 October 2007, saying that questions about his leadership were ""getting in the way of further progress by the party"". After Campbell's resignation, Clegg was regarded by much of the media as front-runner in the leadership election. The BBC's Political Editor Nick Robinson"
"Nick Clegg Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British former politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015 and as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. An """" liberal, Clegg served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam from 2005 to 2017 and has been associated with both socially liberal and economically liberal policies. He is currently Vice-President for Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook. Born in Buckinghamshire, Clegg was educated at the University of Cambridge, the University of Minnesota, and the College"
"He faced wide criticism in the wake of the election defeat regarding his performance during the campaign, and faced speculation of a challenge from rival Tim Nicholls. Nicholls was unable to gain sufficient support to oust Flegg in a closely divided caucus, but following ongoing tension, Flegg resigned as leader on 4 December 2007 and was succeeded by compromise candidate Mark McArdle. Flegg was not part of the initial shadow ministry following the merger of the Liberal Party and National Party to form the Liberal National Party in 2008, but was subsequently appointed Shadow Minister for Education in 2009. He"
"campaign was opposition to the manner of the government opting for a hard Brexit in leaving the European Union. In the 2017 snap general election, the Liberal Democrats had an overall vote share of 7.4%, down 0.5% from 2015. Nevertheless, the party gained a net of four seats from the last election, taking their seat total to twelve. The party recaptured several of its former strongholds: Sir Vince Cable was elected in Twickenham, with a majority of 9,762 votes and a swing of 14.7%. Despite making some gains compared to the previous general election, former party leader Nick Clegg lost"
"seats, their smallest representation since the formation of the assembly in 2000. In the aftermath of the results, Clegg again faced calls to quit as leader, with former MP Lembit Öpik suggesting that Clegg retain his Cabinet position while relinquishing leadership of the party, saying ""My empirical view is that we would have done better with a different leader"". As part of the Coalition Agreement, directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners were introduced to replace Police Authorities. Elections to the new posts took place in November 2012. Liberal Democrats contested 24 of the 41 police force areas, and failed to"
"after his election. Clegg worked extensively during his time as an MEP to support the party in the region, not least in Chesterfield where Paul Holmes was elected as MP in 2001. Clegg helped persuade Conservative MEP Bill Newton Dunn to defect to the Liberal Democrats, with Newton Dunn subsequently succeeding him as MEP for the East Midlands. As an MEP, Clegg co-founded the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform, which led calls for reforms to expenses, transparency and accountability in the European Parliament. He was made Trade and Industry spokesman for the European Liberal Democrat and Reform group (ELDR). In December"
"staircase of the club, while in the 2007 Liberal Democrats leadership election, frontrunner and eventual winner Nick Clegg launched his successful leadership bid from the club's David Lloyd George Room, praising ""the elegance of the National Liberal Club"". As party leader, Clegg has delivered further landmark addresses at the club, such as his ""muscular liberalism"" speech of 11 May 2011, marking one year of the Liberal Democrats in power as part of the Conservative-led coalition government. Designed by leading Victorian architect Alfred Waterhouse in a neo-Gothic style similar to his Natural History Museum, the clubhouse was constructed at a cost"
"with Clegg becoming Deputy Prime Minister and others taking up ministerial positions. At the 2015 general election, the Liberal Democrats were reduced to eight MPs and became the fourth largest party in the House of Commons, behind the SNP leading to Nick Clegg's resignation. At the 2017 general election, the party returned twelve MPs, becoming the third-largest UK-wide party in terms of votes cast. Sir Vince Cable succeeded Tim Farron as party leader. The party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and Liberal International. The Liberal Democrats were formed on 3 March 1988 by"
"in the party and media was that the two were running neck and neck. Some columnists have been critical of Clegg's debate performances. A YouGov poll of party members gave Clegg a 56% to 44% lead in late November, although about half of respondents had yet to vote. On 3 December 2007, on the basis of another poll, Clegg claimed to be well ahead with 60% of votes cast so far in his favour. About 1,300 postal votes were caught up in the Christmas post and missed the election deadline. An unofficial check of the late papers showed Huhne had"
"had dismissed the call for UKIP's participation. The Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband said in January 2013 that the composition of each debate was a matter for the media organisations. In the run-up to the European Parliament election, 2014, there were two debates between the leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg and the UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage. According to polling, Mr Farage is reported to have comfortably won both debates and this prompted further speculation that Farage could or should be invited to take part in the debates ahead of the general election. UKIP won the"
"in 2005. No political party had an overall majority, resulting in the nation's first hung parliament since February 1974. Talks between Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, and Clegg led to an agreed Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition, enabling the Queen to invite Cameron to form a government. Since the 2010 general election, Clegg's Liberal Democrats have contested 13 by-elections in Great Britain (as of 2 March 2013). The party scored their first by-election win of Clegg's leadership at Eastleigh in 2013, with Mike Thornton holding the seat for the Liberal Democrats, despite a 19% swing away from the party. Clegg described the"
"situation which had not occurred since the 1979 election. During the campaign, the three main party leaders engaged in a series of televised debates, the first such debates in a UK general election campaign. The Liberal Democrats achieved a breakthrough in opinion polls after the first debate, in which their leader Nick Clegg was widely seen as the strongest performer. Nonetheless, on polling day their share of the vote increased by only 1% over the previous general election, and they suffered a net loss of five seats. This was still the Liberal Democrats' largest popular vote since the party's creation"
"Parliament in 2005, he served as shadow spokesperson for Transport and Health, and, subsequent to the election of Nick Clegg as party leader worked with Vince Cable as Shadow Treasury spokesperson. In the 2007 leadership election, John Pugh supported Nick Clegg in preference to Chris Huhne. With the formation of the coalition government in 2010 he was appointed as Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee for Health and Social Care, a position he relinquished at the end of 2013 to focus on producing a report examining the social and economic issues facing the North. In his party's 2015 leadership"
"returned a hung parliament, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agreed to form a coalition government. As leader of the smaller of the two parties in the coalition, Nick Clegg was appointed Deputy Prime Minister on the advice of the new Prime Minister, Conservative leader David Cameron. Clegg was the last person to officially hold the post as, following the subsequent 2015 election, in which the Conservatives won an overall majority in the House of Commons, Cameron decided not to appoint a replacement. He chose instead to appoint the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne as First Secretary of State –"
"the House of Commons. When asked by Labour MP Dennis Skinner if he would take a seat in the Lords, he said: ""No"", adding: ""I personally will not take a seat in an unreformed House of Lords. It just sticks in the throat."" Clegg retained his Sheffield Hallam seat in the 2015 election, despite a strong campaign from Labour with a 17% swing in the vote. Clegg campaigned for Remain in the 2016 EU referendum, as did all other Liberal Democrat MPs, and became the Lib Dem spokesperson for Exiting the European Union and International Trade. After Clegg became leader,"
"eight members; Nick Clegg resigned the day after, on 8 May. Lamb stood in the subsequent leadership election, in a contest he lost to Tim Farron in July. Lamb was re-elected at the 2017 election with a majority of 6.7%. On 12 July 2017, Lamb beat fellow Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson to become the chair of the Science and Technology Select Committee by 343 votes to Swinson's 222. In April 2018, Lamb had a stroke which he attributed to long working days and not enough sleep. Shortly after the stroke, Lamb told the Eastern Daily Press that 'There is"
"the party due to his role as the manifesto chair, he was seen as a probable candidate for the social liberal grouping's vote in the future leadership election. Simon Hughes had been the previous standard bearer in the leadership elections in 1999 and 2006. On 17 October 2007 the website Bloggers4Steve announced that Webb had received enough nominations from MPs to run. Despite this, on 18 October Webb announced he was not running and would be backing Nick Clegg for leader. At the 2010 general election, the constituency of Northavon was split into two new constituencies. Subsequently, Steve Webb was"
"was accordingly eliminated, and his second-preference votes were split between the two remaining candidates. The final result was Campbell at 29,697 and Chris Huhne at 21,628 on a 72% membership turnout. Campbell promoted many younger MPs to his Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team including former MEP Nick Clegg as Home Affairs spokesperson and 26-year-old Jo Swinson as Scotland spokesperson. A few weeks prior to Campbell's election to the party leadership, the Liberal Democrats won the Dunfermline and West Fife seat from Labour in a by-election. This was viewed as a major victory for Campbell and as a particular blow to then"
"saw both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats enter government together, with Conservative leader David Cameron as Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister. The parties continued to contest by-elections and local elections against each other. The coalition lasted until the 2015 general election, which saw the Conservatives win a majority of seats and form a government, while the Liberal Democrats lost 49 of their 57 seats. In January 2017, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, ruled out an electoral pact between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, citing ""electorally toxic"" Jeremy Corbyn as the"
"Following the results of the election, Miliband resigned as Leader of the Labour Party after nearly five years. For the first time since the Second World War, the government formed in May 2010 was a coalition, led by the new Prime Minister David Cameron of the Conservative Party, with Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, becoming Deputy Prime Minister. The photograph was taken on 21 May 2014 by Jeremy Selwyn in London for the ""Evening Standard"" newspaper, during the first stop of Miliband's two-day campaign tour ahead of local and European elections. Arriving at New Covent Garden Market at"
"broken his promise. Every single Liberal Democrat MP signed the pledge not to put up tuition fees; every single one of them is about to break that promise."" Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, told ITV's ""Daybreak"" that he should have been more careful in signing the pledge. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, argued the pledge was not binding, as his party did not win the election out-right, and hence could not keep all its manifesto promises. Clegg said that the new proposals were progressive, stating ""those who earn the least will pay much less than they do"
"MP prior to 2001 was selected as the Conservative Party candidate. In a by-election which saw accusations of 'dirty tricks' from all parties but was fairly low-profile (coming so soon after the general election), he managed to slightly increase the Liberal Democrat percentage of the vote on a lower turnout. Mark Hunter served as Liberal Democrat Deputy Chief Whip in the Coalition Government from 2010 until his resignation in 2014. From the election of Nick Clegg as leader of the Liberal Democrats in December 2007 to the 2010 general election, Hunter served as Clegg's Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) and the"