Nick Clegg's political legacy lies in tatters

Nick Clegg believed his political legacy would be to show voters the benefits of European-style coalitions, the likes of which the UK had never before seen during peacetime.

Resigning as leader of the Liberal Democrats after his party took a hammering on Thursday night, he conceded the reality was rather different. "Fear and grievance have won, liberalism has lost," he said. The voters' verdict was "immeasurably more crushing and unkind than I can ever have feared".

Mr Clegg's legacy may be to dissuade smaller parties from entering a full power-sharing deal for the foreseeable future.

In the run-up to the last election, the electorate was engulfed by "Cleggmania" after impressive performances in the televised debates, which saw his party briefly jump to first place in the polls.

The Lib Dem surge failed to materialise at the ballot box, and the party ended up losing five seats at the 2010 election. But the climax of his political career was still to follow, as he led the Lib Dems into coalition with the Conservatives to create Britain's first cross-party government since 1945.

Speaking from the Downing Street Rose Garden during his first joint press conference with David Cameron, a smiling Mr Clegg said: "This is a new government and a new kind of government."

That seemed the natural culmination of his time in politics, which had begun under the tutelage in Brussels of Leon Brittan, the former Conservative home secretary serving in the European Commission, who tried to persuade Mr Clegg to join the Tories.

<

The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.

His leadership contest with Chris Huhne, during which his rival circulated a memo describing his rival as "calamity Clegg", was vicious and close. Mr Clegg won it by a margin of less than 1 per cent.

Mr Clegg's open style proved an asset, however, in the 2010 leaders' debates, during which his relaxed posture won him a legion of fans. But this did not last long. Having persuaded his supporters he was a new, more open kind of politician, they felt all the more betrayed when his party voted in favour of tripling tuition fees, having previously promised to scrap them.

Senior Lib Dems point out, however, that even before that volte face they had lost half of the voters they had secured at the general election, with the party having lost the sheen of being political outsiders.

Mr Clegg did make a televised apology in 2012 for the tuition fees decision, although it failed to do him much good. In this election campaign, Mr Clegg has seemed a man rejuvenated, embarking on a series of eye-catching photo-calls, including posing with a hedgehog, a large wild cod and livestock at a cattle market.

He did just hold on to his seat but with a much reduced majority and the vast majority of his fellow Lib Dem MPs, including Vince Cable, who was Business Secretary in the cabinet, were defeated.

"The history books will judge our party kindly," he said in his concession speech. The Lib Dems had made Britain a "far stronger, fairer, greener and more liberal country than it was five years ago".

Lord Steel, another former Liberal leader, said the party needed to regain the trust of left-leaning voters.

Mr Clegg may have battled ceaselessly to make the coalition work. He may not, however, have made it look very appealing for the next generation of party leaders.

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation