Scottish and Welsh Lib Dem leaders call on Farron to stand

Tim Farron has today been urged to stand for the Liberal Democrat leadership by the leaders of the Scottish and Welsh parties.  

Nick Clegg resigned as leader of the party in the wake of last week’s devastating General Election result, which saw the Lib Dems return just eight MPs from the 57 seats held for the past five years. 

The former party president has said he is “ruling nothing in and ruling nothing out” when it comes to standing for leadership of the party.

However, Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Willie Rennie and Welsh Liberal Democrats leader Kirsty Williams have now urged him to “step up and lead our party to recovery”.

In a joint statement issued this morning, the pair said: "Thursday’s results were devastating for the Liberal Democrats. Our pain is eased by the knowledge that our liberal gains in government will endure.

"Despite our loss our party remains optimistic, hopeful and confident about what we can achieve on behalf of Britain. However, we now have to earn the right to be listened to again.

"To move forward we need a fresh start. With that in mind we call on Tim Farron to stand to be our next Federal Leader. 

“We believe he is the right person to rebuild our party, inspire and lead us into next year’s election campaigns. We will wholeheartedly support him if he decides to put himself forward.” 

Farron is described as a “committed liberal, a brilliant communicator, an outstanding campaigner and an inspirational leader” by Rennie and Williams.  

"With him as leader we can show that we are a compassionate, tolerant, internationalist, reformist party that looks beyond sectional interest to the greater good, to our children's future not just ours, that believes in partnership home and abroad not division, that is liberal and democratic," they add. 

"We urge Tim to step up and lead our party to recovery."

Farron held his Westmorland and Lonsdale seat last week with an 8,949 majority and the largest vote share of any Lib Dem MP to be elected.

Speaking on this morning’s BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Farron said the party had "to turn our anger into action" in the wake of the "most devastating results". 

“We have to rebuild from the bottom up, making sure that local government is the place that we start our rebuilding, identifying target seats, making sure we put as first priority elections to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly next May, whilst creating a sense of purpose and meaning behind the Liberals throughout the UK,” he said. 

“The fact that 6,000 people have joined us since those terrible results on Thursday is staggering but also gives a real sense that out there, there is a burning desire that Britain’s liberal voice doesn’t just survive but it thrives too."