CHARLES KENNEDY hailed his results as the Liberal Democrats’ best for generations yesterday, despite failing to make the breakthrough some predicted and losing ground to the Conservatives.

His tally of 62 MPs, a net gain of 11 after taking account of Scotland’s boundary changes, is enough to satisfy expectations within his party, although privately many Lib Dems hoped for up to twice that number of gains.

But despite jubilation at the big swings achieved from Labour, from whom the Lib Dems took 12 seats, there was a sting in the tail as the Conservatives recovered ground against the Lib Dems.

Mr Kennedy, speaking on the steps of his party headquarters in Cowley Street, Westminster, forecast that his party would play a bigger role in the new Parliament and was better placed to challenge Labour in the next general election.

Asked if he should have done better still, the Lib Dem leader said: “In politics and in life in general, probably you can always do better.”

But he gave no indication that he would revisit some of the policies that may have been more difficult for the Lib Dems to sell in the Conservative heartlands of southern England, such as a 50p income tax rate for the wealthy and local income taxes, saying that these had served the party very well.

The Lib Dems lost five seats to the Tories: Devon West & Torridge, Weston-Super-Mare, Ludlow, Guildford and Newbury. They were offset by three gains: Westmorland & Lonsdale, Taunton and Solihull, a surprise target kept secret for fear of alerting the Tories and won with a swing of almost 20 per cent.

But the Lib Dems’ much-vaunted decapitation strategy backfired, as David Davis, Theresa May and Oliver Letwin increased their majorities, leaving Tim Collins as their sole scalp. Some senior party figures admitted that it had been a grave mistake to hype these up and put the incumbents on their guard.

The Conservatives fended off challenges from Mr Kennedy’s party in a string of their own strongholds and cut Lib Dem majorities in a clutch of seats in the South, such as Romsey, Eastleigh, Carshalton & Wallington, and Sutton & Cheam.

There was no uniform pattern, however, and several Lib Dem MPs saw off Tory challenges with increased majorities in seats such as Twickenham, Yeovil, Devon North and Norfolk North. Able candidates and effective local campaigning seemed to have an impact.

Lord Razzall, who chaired the Lib Dem campaign, attributed the setbacks against the Conservatives to voters responding to campaign appeals to cut Tony Blair’s majority by supporting sitting Tory MPs. In seats with higher-profile Conservatives, turnout was noticeably higher, he said.

Lib Dems can take heart from a new crop of MPs that includes ten women, four of them aged 30 or younger, and some highly able people. Nick Clegg, a former MEP who took over the held seat of Sheffield Hallam, is widely regarded as a future leadership candidate.

Chris Huhne, a serving MEP who held Eastleigh, and Susan Kramer, a former Lib Dem candidate for Mayor of London who held Richmond Park, are both highly rated.

Other new Lib Dem MPs to watch are Lynne Featherstone, a London Assembly member who overhauled a 10,614 Labour majority in Hornsey & Wood Green, and Jeremy Browne, who was the party’s chief press officer under Paddy Ashdown and took Taunton from the Tories.

Some of the Lib Dems’ gains were unexpected: party officials had not prepared a biography of John Leech, their candidate in Manchester Withington. Victory in Ceredigion, won from Plaid Cymru, was even more of a surprise. Both were attributed to the “air war” — campaign messages reported via the media — rather than the traditional Lib Dem tactic of targeting seats.

Mr Kennedy, who confirmed that he plans to remain as leader, is also better placed to challenge Labour in the next election as Lib Dems took second place to Labour in more than 160 seats, compared with 111 in the previous election.

Some were very close. Oxford East was held by the former Cabinet Minister Andrew Smith by 963 votes, and Labour clung on in Islington South & Finsbury with a margin of just 484.

Lord Rennard, the party’s chief executive, who has a powerful influence on campaign messages, reinforced the impression that Lib Dems would stick by policies while they may have played poorly with Tory supporters, saying that the introduction of top-up fees and council tax revaluation would revive both issues.

“Issues we have set out during the course of this campaign will turn into very strong issues during the course of the next Parliament and through to the 2009 (general) election,” Lord Rennard said.

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