THE TELEGRAPH: Nick Clegg’s decision to agree to set up a coalition Government with David Cameron has been overwhelmingly backed by his party's members.
The news came despite former party leader Charles Kennedy revealing he had not signed up to the coalition deal and opinion polls showed voters switching from Liberal Democrats to Labour.
The Lib Dems convened a special conference to give its members a say on Mr Clegg’s decision to enter in coalition Government with the Tories.
The decision had already been backed by the party’s MPs and its executive, which meant that the leadership would not have been bound by the result of the conference.
However, in the event, members voted “over-whelmingly” in support of the deal with no more than a dozen of the 2,000 delegates opposing the deal in a show of hands at the gathering in Birmingham.
Speaking after the vote, Mr Clegg said: “It is a big step. There are lots of unknowns, there will be bumps and scrapes along the way”.
He said the party's special conference had taken a “very, very important decision” to approve the coalition “which is utterly new in modern British political history”.
He added: “It would simply be wrong for us to let this chance of real change pass us by. >>> Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor | Sunday, May 16, 2010
