Sir Menzies Campbell Predicts that Lib Dems Face Historic Chance in Election

9.48.07am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 4th Feb 2005

Sir Menzies Campbell Predicts that Lib Dems Face Historic Chance in Election

The Liberal Democrats deputy leader and foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell told Hampshire Liberal Democrats yesterday (Thursday) that the party faced an historic opportunity at the general election expected in May.

Speaking at the Eastleigh annual dinner at East Horton golf club, Sir Menzies said that he had been active in every general election since 1974, and there had never been a better chance for the Liberal Democrats to make their mark with a large increase in both votes and seats.

"The election will be about trust and credibility" Sir Menzies said. You cannot trust a government that took us to war in Iraq, and the Conservatives had no credibility to deliver on key issues like health and education.

Sir Menzies said that it had not been easy to oppose our involvement in the Iraq invasion, but that the subsequent failure to find weapons of mass destruction had proved that we had intervened on the basis of a false prospectus.

The key issue now was to help Iraq to govern itself, and we had to recognise that the presence of British troops would not be helpful beyond the expiry of the United Nations mandate for our presence at the end of 2005. "We should set a clear limit and provide all the support and training that we can to ensure Iraqis are in position to take over" said Sir Menzies.

Sir Menzies said that he particularly welcomed speaking in Eastleigh both because of his affection for David Chidgey who had been an excellent parliamentary representative and also his admiration for Hampshire MEP Chris Huhne, whose work in the European Parliament showed he would be a worthy successor when David retired.

David Chidgey MP, welcoming Sir Menzies, predicted that this would be his last annual dinner as Eastleigh's MP but said that he was delighted that the local party had chosen Chris Huhne, who he was confident would be voted as his successor by the people of Eastleigh. "Chris has many outstanding qualities and will fight for this area".

Hampshire MEP Chris Huhne, Eastleigh's prospective parliamentary candidate, thanked Sir Menzies for visiting the "deep south" at the other end of our island from his own. He said that the local party had a lot to celebrate. "Normally, when political parties take control, their support gradually diminishes as they take tough decisions. By contrast, the Liberal Democrats have controlled Eastleigh Borough Council for ten years and this year we won our largest ever majority. That is testimony to the success of the council group under Cllr Keith House".

The dinner, one of the best attended for many years, showed that the Liberal Democrats were not going to rest on our laurels in south Hampshire but intended to add further to the four parliamentary seats held already in the area (Eastleigh, Romsey, Winchester and Portsmouth South).