Lib Dems: Pressure on Campbell as share of vote slides

Sir Menzies Campbell was forced to insist that he would lead his party into the next election and beyond, despite losing hundreds of council seats.

The Liberal Democrats saw their share of the vote slide by one percentage point on last year's local elections to 26 per cent and lost more than 230 council seats. Party strategists said their share of the vote was at the top end of results in the past decade. They insisted that the Liberal Democrats always faced an uphill struggle for seats last contested during the dog days of Iain Duncan Smith's leadership of the Conservative Party.

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Sir Menzies admitted that the results were a "mixed bag" for the Liberal Democrats. The party celebrated taking control of Eastbourne Council from the Tories, gaining Rochdale and seizing the former Labour heartland of Hull from no overall control.

But the party lost Torbay, Bournemouth, Windsor and Maidenhead and Waverley councils to the Tories. The party also lost control in York and St Albans. Conservatives said the Liberal Democrat losses were the largest for a decade.

Sir Menzies was forced to reject claims that the party's loss of momentum would open up questions over his leadership style. He told the BBC: "Let me make it absolutely clear. I will be leading this party through this parliament, into the next election and into the parliament beyond." He said: "I said these elections were going to be pretty tough, but to win Hull and Rochdale and Eastbourne is obviously extremely acceptable to us. Share of the vote for all three parties is pretty well the same as it was 12 months ago - in our case 26 per cent that's 4 per cent better than we got in the last general election. The highest we've ever had is 29 per cent, so 26 per cent on this occasion is pretty close to that. So a mixed bag, but one or two very good results to be cheerful about."

The Liberal Democrats maintained their position in the Welsh Assembly, but fell back slightly in Scotland.

Lord Chris Rennard, the party's chief executive, said the Liberal Democrats had lost small rural wards to the Tories in the South on small swings but gained large urban wards in the North.