Clegg wins Lib Dem leadership

Nick Clegg has been elected as the new leader of the Liberal Democrats by just 511 votes.

The party's home affairs spokesman won a narrow victory over rival Chris Huhne on Tuesday following a two-month campaign to replace Sir Menzies Campbell.

Bookmakers' favourite Clegg, who secured 20,988 votes to Huhne's 20,477 on a 64 per cent turnout, becomes the third Lib Dem leader in less than two years.

After an at times fractious campaign, he was immediately congratulated by environment spokesman Huhne, who pledged loyal support and to work closely with him.

"Nick is going to be a great leader of the Liberal Democrats," he said.

And Clegg praised Huhne for his energy and commitment to "liberalism".

"You and I have been rivals in this contest," he told him. "As of now, we are colleagues again."

Clegg claimed he had "one simple ambition: To change Britain to make it the liberal country I believe its people want it to be".

"Today is about two things: Ambition and change," he declared.

He pledged to "reach out to the millions of people who I know share our values but don't yet vote for us".

Clegg said it was a time of "unprecedented opportunity" for his party, with voters feeling "let down" by Labour and not knowing what the Conservatives stand for.

However he added that the Lib Dems must be "more professional, more united [and] more ambitious".

"We must start acting like the national party we are," he warned.

The 40-year-old MP for Sheffield Hallam, an MP only since 2005, stood on a platform pledging to end the party's "introverted" period and talk to the country as a whole.

He will now be tasked with reviving the third party's fortunes at a time when it has slumped in the polls and faces being squeezed by David Cameron's modernised Conservative Party at the next general election.

He is expected to reshuffle his frontbench before Christmas and promised that it would be a "united team".