THE Liberal Democrats face a "very tough" 2015 General Election campaign but are more than capable of holding on to their current haul of 56 seats, Charles Kennedy has said.
The former party leader, with the LibDems polling only 10% and often behind Ukip, admitted his party would find the circumstances of the next poll "tough, very tough".
He explained: "They were bound to be tough from the minute the Coalition decision was taken and that would have been the case whatever way the Coalition had gone; had there been a coalition in theory with Labour."
The MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber made clear that he had not supported the Lib-Con Coalition, preferring a so-called "confidence and supply arrangement", supporting a minority Tory government but only on those issues the LibDems agreed with.
But asked if, given his party's consistently low standing in the opinion polls, it could hold on to its seats, Mr Kennedy replied: "We can do that. If you look at the pattern of results, we have had very bad setbacks but in areas where we have had parliamentary representation we have been bucking that trend, in the main. So we can certainly do that but there's a big, big communication job for us to do over the next 18 months," he added.
Katharine Peacock, managing dDirector of Comres, the pollsters, suggested the LibDems might face difficulty in those seats where grandees were standing down.
Sir Menzies Campbell, who represents North East Fife, and Sir Malcolm Bruce, who is MP for Gordon, will retire from the Commons next year.
"Big names standing down is going to have a real impact on the Lib Dems at the next election because essentially they are based on the local relevancy of their MPs," explained Ms Peacock.
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