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Lib Dems head for big local elections losses Nick Clegg: I won't resign despite election losses
(about 7 hours later)
The Lib Dems are on course for the worst local election results since they entered a government with the Conservatives, early results suggest. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg reflected on a "mixed night" after his party suffered heavy losses in council elections.
Their vote has gone down 13 points in wards they contested in 2010 and by two points in those they contested in 2012. The Lib Dem leader said he would not be resigning and said a "very strong anti-politics mood" was behind the results.
But the majority of the 161 councils where elections were held on Thursday have yet to declare. With 65 councils declared, his party had lost just over a third of the seats it was defending, down 103 councillors.
And senior party figures are hoping to do better in areas where they have a strong local activist base. It comfortably held the flagship Eastleigh council where UKIP nearly won a by-election last year.
They will be encouraged by the result in Eastleigh, where the the Lib Dems very nearly lost to UKIP at a by-election last year. But it had lost control of two councils, Portsmouth and Kingston-upon-Thames.
Mr Clegg told BBC News: "It's not easy, it's never easy, to see dedicated hard-working Liberal Democrat councillors lose ground."
He said he believed the party was still right to have entered coalition with the Conservatives, and would "absolutely not" be resigning whatever the outcome of these elections.
'Local circumstances'
Former Portsmouth MP Mike Hancock lost his seat to UKIP as the city ended up in no overall control.
And the Lib Dems lost Kingston-upon-Thames in a straight fight with the Tories.
Sir Malcolm Bruce, the party's deputy leader, said Kingston and Portsmouth involved "very difficult local circumstances".
He said the party had fared well in areas where it had sitting MPs, such as Eastleigh, where UKIP failed to win a seat, and the constituencies of Birmingham Yardley MP John Hemming and Mid Dorset and North Poole's Annette Brooke.
But the Lib Dems lost 14 of their 23 seats in Haringey which contains government minister Lynne Featherstone's parliamentary seat.
'Humanity''Humanity'
This time they have held off the threat from Nigel Farage's party, which has failed to win a seat on the council, and retained their dominance in the council chamber, with 40 seats to the Tories' four. Reacting to the results, she told the BBC that Ukip had "managed to sound like human beings".
The Lib Dems also retained seats in the constituencies of Birmingham Yardley MP John Hemming and Mid Dorset and North Poole's Annette Brooke. "That's Nigel Farage's big win," she said. "I think all of us have got to the point where we are so guarded, so on-message, that we seem to have lost some of our humanity."
Lib Dem minister Lynne Featherstone told BBC News the party could lose half of its 732 seats up for grabs at this election and that being in government had cost the party some of its "humanity". She told BBC News the party could lose half of its 732 seats up for grabs at this election and that being in government had cost the party some of its "humanity".
The party is braced for heavy losses in the European elections, which were also held on Thursday, with some senior figures worried they could lose all 12 of their MEPs.The party is braced for heavy losses in the European elections, which were also held on Thursday, with some senior figures worried they could lose all 12 of their MEPs.
The results are due to start coming in late Sunday, when counting gets under way across the EU.The results are due to start coming in late Sunday, when counting gets under way across the EU.
But first the party will be watching results in London, where it is battling to retain control in Tory target Kingston-upon-Thames, where Lib Dem cabinet minister Ed Davey has his Westminster seat. Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "We take a kicking for the things the government does that are unpopular and it does reflect on us."
Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable said: "We take a kicking for the things the government does that are unpopular and it does reflect on us." But he dismissed suggestions that Mr Clegg's future as Lib Dem leader could be called into question if the party endured a poor night, saying: "There isn't a leadership issue and I think he has enhanced respect as a result of being willing to engage with these very difficult issues."
But he dismissed suggestions that Nick Clegg's future as Lib Dem leader could be called into question if the party endured a poor night, saying: "There isn't a leadership issue and I think he has enhanced respect as a result of being willing to engage with these very difficult issues."