Charles Kennedy will provide a "voice for the voiceless" as party strategists predict a poll surge to 20 per cent - the Lib Dems get 19 per cent in Guardian's latest ICM poll - and a win of more than 50 seats.

The Liberal Democrats will become the party of real opposition, Kennedy said yesterday, holding the government to account on the "issues that matter" and providing a voice for "pensioners, overburdened doctors, nurses and teachers and all those concerned about the environment".