{"id":4399,"date":"2015-05-09T08:49:15","date_gmt":"2015-05-09T08:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=4399"},"modified":"2015-05-09T08:49:15","modified_gmt":"2015-05-09T08:49:15","slug":"nick-clegg-resigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/nick-clegg-resigns\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Clegg resigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"nick<\/a>Nick Clegg has resigned as Liberal Democrat leader after his party was routed at the general election.
\nThe Lib Dems are set to end up with just eight MPs, down from 57 in 2010.
\nEnergy Secretary Ed Davey, Business Secretary Vince Cable and Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander all lost their seats.
\nMr Clegg said the results were \u201cimmeasurably more crushing\u201d than he had feared, saying it had been a \u201chuge honour\u201d to lead the party.
\nIn a speech in London, he confirmed a leadership election would now take place to replace him.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s simply heartbreaking to see so many friends and colleagues who have served their constituents over so many years abruptly lose their seats because of forces entirely beyond their control\u201d he said.
\nMr Clegg, who held seats, added that \u201cfear and grievance have won, liberalism has lost\u201d.
\nHistory would judge his party more kindly than the electorate, he said, pointing to some of the measures the Lib Dems had championed in government.
\nOther senior Lib Dems to fall were former schools secretary David Laws, former party leader Charles Kennedy and former deputy leader Simon Hughes.
\nMr Davey, previously tipped as a possible party leader, lost his Kingston and Surbiton seat to the Conservatives.
\nNearby in south west London, Mr Cable lost his Twickenham seat, also to the Conservatives.
\nBoth attributed their defeats to a combination of coalition and Conservative warnings about the threat of a Labour\/Scottish National Party administration.
\nNick Clegg\u2019s political journey has seen him win a bitter Liberal Democrat leadership battle, rise to become deputy prime minister, and face furious criticism over his U-turn on tuition fees.
\nBut despite retaining his own parliamentary seat in 2015, he has resigned as Lib Dem leader after disastrous election results saw the party crushed at the polls.
\nHe was once mentioned in the same breath as Winston Churchill and took his party up to notable highs and now down to painful lows in its popularity.
\nMr Davey said his party had \u201cpaid some price\u201d for joining a coalition government but he had \u201clost on Conservative warnings\u201d of a Labour government propped up by the SNP.
\nMr Cable said it had been \u201ca terrible night\u201d, but the party would \u201cbounce back\u201d.
\nMr Alexander told the BBC: \u201cI lost my seat, that\u2019s democracy. Worse things happen to people.\u201d
\nHe said he hadn\u2019t expected the results to be \u201cas bad as this\u201d, and said the party had \u201ca lot of thinking to do about how to keep the flame of liberalism alive\u201d against what he described as \u201cthe forces of nationalism and anti-Europeanism\u201d.
\nFormer Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown told the BBC he was \u201cimmensely proud that we put the national interest first\u201d by forming a coalition in 2010, adding: \u201cWe will be back.\u201d
\nNorman Lamb, who served as a coalition health minister and who held on to his Norfolk North seat, said it felt like an \u201cunwritten rule of politics\u201d that the smaller party in a coalition \u201closes out\u201d.
\nVeteran Lib Dem MP of 32 years Simon Hughes lost his Bermondsey and Old Southwark seat in London to Labour\u2019s Neil Coyle.
\nIn Scotland, Charles Kennedy, MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber for 30 years, and leader of the party from 1999 to 2006, lost his seat to the SNP.
\nLib Dem employment minister Jo Swinson lost her East Dunbartonshire seat to the SNP\u2019s John Nicolson with a swing of 16%.
\nHome Office minister Lynne Featherstone and whip Jenny Willott also lost their seats.
\nFormer Liberal Democrat president Tim Farron successfully held his seat in Cumbria\u2019s Westmorland and Lonsdale.
\nPaddy Ashdown: \u201cIt\u2019s the very last time I will question a BBC exit poll\u201d
\nScottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael was re-elected in his Orkney and Shetland seat in Scotland, despite a swing to the SNP of 24%.
\nEarlier in the evening, Lord Ashdown said he would \u201cpublicly eat his hat\u201d if predictions the party would lose 47 seats were correct.
\nHe told the BBC this was a \u201ccertain error\u201d and the party\u2019s own polling indicated it would fare better.
\nHe later admitted it had been a \u201cbitter, painful and cruel\u201d night for the Liberal Democrats \u2013 and accepted that he \u201cnow has to eat his hat\u201d.
\nMany Lib Dems have lost their \u00a3500 deposit, which is not returned to candidates who get below 5% of votes cast.
\nThe party did not lose any deposits in the 2010 general election.
\nOn the eve of the election Mr Clegg insisted his party would be the \u201csurprise story\u201d of polling day, defying predictions of an electoral mauling.
\nMr Lamb, who is widely expected to stand for the leadership of his party, said the Liberal Democrats needed a \u201cperiod of reflection\u201d.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not a good time to be making big decisions when we\u2019re all utterly exhausted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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