New Liberal leader

Press, 8 July 1976, Page 9

New Liberal leader

NZPA-Reuter Staff Corres. Londor Britain’s minority Liberal Party will have a new leader later today after an astonishing month-long campaign that has done little to enhance its claim to be a serious force in British politics. Mr David Steel, aged 38, a Scottish minister’s son, is expected to be named the new leader, faced with the immediate task of restoring some credibility to the party after the public slanging match that marked the campaign.

It is the first time that all members of a British political party have been allowed to choose a leader, instead of just members of Parliament. The Liberal experiment — a revolutionary change in British constitutional practice — was hailed at first as a welcome break-through. But there is little sign that jt has done the Liberals any

>ood, and there seems to be io prospect of the two major parties following suit. Mr Steel’s, rival was Mr lohn Pardoe. a 41-year-old Cornwall M.P., who distinguished himself at the outset by declaring: "People will vote for a bastard if they thing he is an effective bastard. and I intend to prove that I am the most effective bastard around.” Mr Steel’s followers retaliated by, among other things, suggesting that. Mr Pardoe wore a hairpiece. And so it went on — developing, as “The Times” said, into “an unedifying spectacle for the public.” Noting that Asquith and Gladstone must have been turning in their graves, the “Daily Telegraph” said: “This leadership election has shown, once and for all, what a shambles the once-glorious Liberals have become.”

This was all entertaining stuff, and the press seized on it. But, a record-breaking

heatwave to occupy their minds, the British have not appeared too excited over the issue.

The Liberals have been fading as a political force since their peak in the February. 1974, General Election, when they polled six million votes and returned 14 M.P.s to the House of Commons. Continuing indecision over policy and direction, compounded by the enforced departure .. of their previous leader. Mr . Jeremy Thorpe, after an unsubstantiated and denied-homosexual allegation, foStfered tjreir decline? Between 20,000 and 30.000 party members are expected to have voted .in the leadership poll, through an electoral college of constituency parties. Mr Steel’s first task will be to unite them under his leadership and to try to pre-

sent to the public policies that will wipe nut memories of the last few weeksj