Former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg resigns as Liberal Democrats leader

Despite retaining his Sheffield Hallam seat with 22,215 votes during the 2015 general election, the worst ever showing overall for the Liberal Democrats has forced Nick Clegg to resign as the party’s leader.

Clegg, who called the election a “punishing night” for the party on a national scale, only won with a much reduced majority of 2,353 in Sheffield, which is significantly down from a substantial win in 2010 where he had a majority of 15,284.

During the announcement of his resignation as party leader, Clegg said: “I always expected this election to be exceptionally difficult for the liberal Democrats, given the heavy responsibilities we’ve had to bare in government in the most challenging of circumstances.

“But clearly the result shave been immeasurably more crushing and unkinder than I could have ever feared, for that, of course, I must take responsibility and therefore I announce I will be resigning as leader of liberal Democrats.”

As well as the resignation of Clegg, many of his colleagues also find themselves out of a job, with the most high profile casualty being Vince Cable, the Business Secretary.

Cable’s 12,000 majority in Twickenham was overturned, losing to his Conservative opponent Tania Mathias by more than 2,000 votes.

Other Lib Dem MP’s who failed to retain their seats include Lynee Featherstone, Ed Davey, Simon Hughes and Charles Kennedy.

The question now remains, who will be Nick Clegg’s successor?

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