Britain's Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg (Reuters/Andrew Yates)Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, has resigned, after his party suffered “catastrophic losses” in the UK General Election.
“I always expected this election to be exceptionally difficult,” said Clegg.
“Clearly the results have been immeasurably more crushing and cruel.”
In his heartfelt resignation speech on Friday before noon, Clegg said “fear and grievance” had won, while Liberalism had lost.
He says responsibility for the Lib Dem collapse is his, calling it the price paid for making the decision to go into government with the Conservatives.
"This is a very dark hour for our party but we cannot and will not allow decent liberal values to be extinguished overnight."
"Our party will come back," he said. It will take resilience, but this is what his party was built on, he said.
He said he must take responsibility for the Lib Dem's loss, and thanked his colleagues for their hard and diligent work in recent years. He called his fellow Liberal Democrats members a “family” and added, “It is simply heart-breaking to see so many colleagues and friends lose their seats.”
He reportedly left the room in tears after delivering his resignation speech.
Nick Clegg is the second party leader to resign, after Nigel Farage of UKIP has resigned shortly before him. Ed Miliband is also expected to stand down.
People have taken to Twitter to share their thoughts on his resignation. Overall, comments about him are quite positive, calling him a "gracious" leader and that he put his country before his own interests.
Dat awkward moment when #Clegg remembered to be inspirational about the importance of liberalism a tad bit too late. #GE02015 — The Greek Analyst (@GreekAnalyst) May 8, 2015
Long a Clegg fan. Still am. Intelligent, thoughtful, decent. Impossible situation for him, made mistakes but fewer than most others wd have. — Stephen Tall (@stephentall) May 8, 2015
Huge respect for @nick_clegg and the #LibDems - put country before narrow party interest — Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) May 8, 2015
Clegg getting a standing ovation, for nearly wiping out his Party. How wonderfully British. — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) May 8, 2015
I hope history judges @nick_clegg's coalition years positively. Mistakes were made but he did what he had to with the cards dealt #ge2015 — ?St? ? (@thew00d) May 8, 2015
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