Charles Kennedy has led his troops to another rise in their number of MPs and indicated he is ready to fight a third general election.

The Liberal Democrat leader returned to London from his Scottish constituency to hail a strong performance by the party.

It has so far won 62 seats, up from the 52 won in 2001.

The party made most of its gains at Labour's expense, but saw a loss to the Conservatives.

And the Lib Dem share of the vote is set to reach 23 per cent, a rise on the 18.3 per cent recorded at the previous election.

"If you look at where we have gained seats in this election, with a view to the next general election, well-poised to begin the task of providing the real alternative to this Labour government," said Kennedy.

Chosen to succeed Paddy Ashdown as Liberal Democrat leader in 1999, Kennedy promised to serve for three elections and build his parliamentary party.

He stamped his authority on the party by ending the close co-operation with Labour that Ashdown had so carefully encouraged.

Kennedy's leadership style also differed from his predecessor, his laid back image reinforced with appearances on TV shows like Have I Got News For You.

However critics say the "chat show Charlie" persona is a hindrance to him being taken seriously as a politician.

He has also been attacked for his lifestyle and his sometimes lacklustre performances in parliament.

Recently Kennedy failed to defeat the government over the anti-terrorism bill when he and other Lib Dems did not turn up to a vote they could have had a decisive influence on.

However the Lib Dem leader's success in increasing the number of his party's MPs should quiet internal critics.

There may be questions over whether the party's increasingly left-wing agenda will allow it to genuinely compete with the Conservatives in the south of England.

But Kennedy ran a canny campaign, capitalising on the Lib Dems objections to the war in Iraq and appearing principled and consistent where the Tories seemed unsure and contradictory.

The party has also focused its appeal to middle class voters, who would have gained from the scrapping of student tuition fees and the introduction of free care for the elderly.

In his first major campaign, the 2001 general election, the Liberal Democrats improved their share of the vote to 18.3 per cent, 1.5 per cent more than in the 1997 election.

Although this is a smaller share than the 25.4 per cent the SDP/Liberal Alliance achieved in 1983, the Lib Dems won 52 seats compared to the Alliance's 23.

Kennedy, along with his election guru Lord Rennard, has focused the Lib Dem regional campaigning on turning a lower level of national support into a greater number of parliamentary seats.

It has continued to run effective campaigns on the ground, but the extra MPs gained in 2005 do not disguise the fact that Kennedy failed in his previously stated ambition of replacing the Conservatives as the "real opposition".