Kennedy: "Momentum is with Lib Dems"

Charles Kennedy has welcomed his new parliamentary party to Westminster and announced a major review of the party's policies.

The Liberal Democrats now have 62 MPs, its highest number since 1923.

Kennedy told the MPs: "This election has demonstrated that the Liberal Democrats are the real alternative to Labour in great swathes of the country and that we can win seats in urban, suburban and rural Britain."

The party leader believes that last Thursday's election saw the party come of age and usher in a new era of three party politics.

The Lib Dems finished in second place in 187 constituencies, including 104 seats held by Labour.

Kennedy also claimed the Conservatives have "plunged into a prolonged period of internal debate and conflict" and that the Lib Dems have a "golden opportunity" to seize the initiative in the new parliament.

"We must demonstrate that it is the Liberal Democrats who are best able to hold the government to account and to offer an alternative vision for Britain," he said.

Policy

But in a signal he may try to shift the party to the right, Kennedy outlined a need to look at policy development in a more flexible manner than in the past and away from the party conference. 

"We must reconsider whether it should be possible to commit the party to specific and often controversial policies on the basis of a brief, desultory debate in a largely empty hall.   

"We need now to re-examine our overall policy stance and then develop specific strands of policy in line with it."

He said the party was committed to review Lib Dem tax policy and to bring in new ways of tackling problems in a modern and changing society by consulting with newer and younger members of the party.

Kennedy concluded: "My aim as leader of the Liberal Democrats is to put the party in a position to challenge for power at the next election.

"In an era of three-party politics with no party able to claim to represent more than a minority of the electorate, we enter uncharted waters.  But we do so in bullish mood.

"The political momentum is with the Liberal Democrats. Between us, we must now build on this momentum."