BRITAIN:Hot favourite Nick Clegg won the leadership of Britain's Liberal Democrats yesterday, but with just a 511-vote majority over rival Chris Huhne.
Some 10,000 fewer party members voted than in the previous contest in which Mr Huhne ran against Menzies Campbell, who stood down last month amid rumours of a leadership plot after prime minister Gordon Brown decided against a "snap" general election.
With 41,465 votes cast, Mr Clegg, an ex-journalist and former MEP, took 20,988 votes against Mr Huhne's 20,477.
Addressing his MPs and party members immediately after acting leader Vince Cable had declared the result, Mr Clegg told Mr Huhne: "Chris, you and I have been rivals in this contest. As of now, we are colleagues again and I am really looking forward to working with you for the sake of liberalism in Britain."
However, Mr Huhne's stronger-than-expected performance left Mr Clegg with a weakened hand as he set about reshaping the party's front-bench after a tense leadership contest in which the new leader had been characterised by critics as "calamity Clegg" and "Cameron-lite".
Mr Clegg wasted no time targeting David Cameron's Conservatives, signalling a necessary fightback against a "liberal Tory" assault on the centre-ground of British politics.
Mr Clegg's urgent need is to win back defectors to the Conservatives after a long period of Lib Dem introspection that has seen them elect their third leader in two years, while disappearing off the radar of many voters.
"I simply refuse to believe that the only alternative to a clapped- out Labour government is a Conservative Party that has no answers on the big issues - environmentalism without substance, social justice without money, internationalism without Europe."
Proclaiming a "bright future" for his party, Mr Clegg declared his ambition "to change Britain to make it the liberal country I believe the British people want it to be".
With a string of sound-bites reminiscent of Tony Blair's New Labour, Mr Clegg said he wanted "a new politics, a people's politics".
He would open up his party, with town hall meetings and a "network of families" around the country, unconnected to politics, telling him what his priorities should be.
"I want a new politics, a people's politics. I want to live in a country where rights, freedoms and privacy are not the playthings of politicians, but safeguarded for everyone."
He acknowledged former voters who might "think we have spent too much time focusing on ourselves", telling his party: "Friends, this is an unprecedented time of opportunity for liberalism in this country. If we are to grab this opportunity, my party will need to change.
"We must start acting like the growing national political force that we are - more professional, more united, more ambitious."
The new leader went on: "Liberalism is the creed of our times. The politics of left and right has broken down. Labour and the Conservatives are mutating into each other, united in defence of a system which has let the people down."