Lib Dems face 10 year recovery, says Sir Menzies Campbell

Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell has said it will take a decade for the party to recover from the last election.

The view puts him at odds with the current leader Tim Farron who insisted - in an interview with the BBC - that the Lib Dems could hold power in just five years.

Mr Farron's claim the Lib Dems can and must return to office has been a central theme of his first party conference.

But Sir Menzies urged Lib Dems to be realistic, and said the claim they could recover so quickly risked being met with cynicism and scepticism by voters.

He said: "My view, being entirely realistic, is that this is a 10-year journey."

'Liberal space'

The former leader - who has been nominated for a peerage - said the party could improve its numbers in the House of Commons and have a significant influence in the next Parliament.

But he added: "I think if we go around telling people that we're going to hold the balance of power or that we're going to do well enough to be in government then people will be somewhat cynical or sceptical about that."

Mr Farron, asked whether the Lib Dems could be in power at the next election, replied "absolutely".

He said: "Liberal space, that socially just, economically credible space has just now become vast and the Liberal Democrats now aim ambitiously to fill it because if we don't the Tories may be in power for 10 years and that would be unconscionable "

Mr Farron told BBC News the Liberal Democrats would provide grid references showing where exactly they want to see five new garden cities built between Oxford and Cambridge. The Lib Dems would seek to build 10 cities in total.

Second referendum

The Lib Dem leader said party members would be free to campaign for an independent Scotland if they choose in a second referendum.

The party's leader in Scotland Willie Rennie said they should have that freedom in an interview on Good Morning Scotland.

"We would of course tolerate people to make their own position," said Mr Farron.

But he added Scotland was integral to his identity and Scotland leaving the UK would be terrible news. Lib Dems would also be free to campaign for leaving the EU he said if they chose, he added.

Mr Farron, who is due to make his first major conference speech as leader on Wednesday, declined to condemn songs mocking the late Charles Kennedy's alcoholism that appear in a Lib Dem songbook.

Party aides say Kennedy's family was consulted about the book. He said the songbook went back 25 years and contained songs written in the 19th Century.

"I think what's really important is that we remember Charles today and the celebration of his life which we shall have later on is a reminder of the fact this is a man who achieved vast things," said the Lib Dem leader.