BRITAIN: Menzies "Ming" Campbell has claimed the Liberal Democrat leadership with a promise to lead his party "back towards government" at the next British general election.
The 64-year-old former Olympic sprinter confounded critics and bookmakers alike to win what second-placed challenger Chris Huhne acknowledged was "a hard-won and decisive mandate" to build on the legacy bequeathed by Charles Kennedy, whose enforced resignation triggered a troubled five-week leadership contest.
Despite predictions of a close-run race, Sir Menzies ended up with a comfortable 57 per cent of the vote, beating Mr Huhne 29,697 to 21,628 on the second count following the first-round elimination of party president Simon Hughes, who polled 12,081 votes.
He said his was "a victory for all Liberal Democrats" before warning that he was ready to "challenge the party" to be "a genuine crucible of ideas" and to be "honest and credible" in its appeal to the British electorate.
Vowing to "modernise" the Lib Dems, Sir Menzies said he wanted them to be "a party of democratic revolution" leading a crusade "against poverty of income and poverty of aspiration".
Shrugging off suggestions that he was the safe establishment candidate, Sir Menzies said of his mission: "A safe pair of hands, yes, but ready to take risks, ready to challenge orthodoxy and ready to challenge the party too."
Declaring the party "forever" in Mr Kennedy's debt, Sir Menzies said its purpose now was "to build a strong, effective, powerful Liberal Democrat party with the objective of ensuring a greener, fairer, decentralised and democratic Britain, a Britain at peace with itself at home and admired abroad."
Before preparing to address this weekend's Lib Dem spring conference, Sir Menzies stressed he had no intention of being a "caretaker" leader, insisting: "Let me make clear that caution and consolidation will not do."
And he promised a blend of youth and experience in the new shadow cabinet, which he would announce next week.
Mr Huhne and Mr Hughes, who immediately pledged their loyalty to the new leader, are expected to be given senior posts, although Sir Menzies gave no signal whether he intended to make either of his rivals his deputy.
The defeated Mr Hughes told him: "We will go, Ming, under your leadership from strength to strength towards the government that Britain desperately needs and that we are all so unitedly determined to achieve."
While promising to lead his party "back towards government" at the next election, the new leader gave no immediate indication of whether he would make electoral reform a condition of support for any minority government resulting from a hung parliament.
However, amid celebration and some relief at Sir Menzies's decisive victory, the bookmakers immediately concluded that his leadership reduces the party's prospects in the next general election. William Hill lengthened the odds on the Lib Dems becoming the largest single party at Westminster from 66/1 to 80/1, while making the party 2/5 to take fewer seats next time, 7/4 to increase their number and 20/1 to return the same.
Labour lost no time in turning its fire on the new Lib Dem leadership. Chancellor Gordon Brown said: "For a few months we have seen the Liberal party in search of a new leader; now we'll see a leader in search of a party."
And leader of the Commons Geoff Hoon said the Lib Dems had to reinvent themselves as a credible political party.