On This Day

02 March 2006

Sir Menzies Campbell is elected leader of the Liberal Democrats

The election had been triggered by the resignation of Charles Kennedy. Campbell the early favourite was challenged by Chris Huhne and Simon Hughes. Huhne in particular fought an energetic campaign and gained a good deal of ground in the campaign so that when the first round of voting was announced Huhne had pushed Hughes into third place. After Hughes’ votes were redistributed, Campbell was elected with 29,697 votes to Huhne’s 21,628. As leader, Campbell brought more rigour to policy making and to party organisation, however his leadership was never fully embraced by the party and after leading the Liberal Democrats for barely 18 months, Campbell resigned in October 2007.