El_Raymondo elected Liberal Democrat leader by wide margin

The party has told the Guardian exclusively that the shadow foreign secretary beat Shadow Chancellor JellyCow99 to the leadership with 57.1% of the vote.

El_Raymondo (pictured in his home town) is the new Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition.

Shadow Foreign Secretary and Opposition Chief Whip El_Raymondo was last night declared the new leader of the Liberal Democrats following an internal vote of members. The contest saw Mr Raymondo take on Shadow Chancellor and party Deputy Leader JellyCow99 for the party’s top job following the shock resignation of leader Estoban06. The Guardian has been officially told by the party that Mr Raymondo won by a clear margin garnering 57.1% to Mr Cow99’s 42.9%. A total number of 21 votes were cast in the election. Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Shadow Defence Secretary Vladthelad123 was also initially running but dropped out way before the voting began. Mr Raymondo will now also become deputy leader of the LibLab official opposition, a coalition opposition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. It started the term as a Traffic Light Coalition, including the Greens and Plaid Cymru, but shrunk after the departure of the former and an agreement with the latter to go separate ways.

The news comes amidst a difficult time for the Liberal Democrats who have been undergoing a decline in the polls. The party won 12.8% at the last election in February under the leadership of Mr 06 and were the country’s fourth most popular party. But it has at no point in the months since managed to match or top that figure in any poll and the most recent public opinion survey put the party at just 9.38%, its lowest point since just before the February vote.

The Liberal Democrats also managed to beat their former coalition partners in the Classical Liberals to be the largest liberal party in February, in which the latter won 10.2% of the vote, but they have since fallen way behind them. The last poll put the Classical Liberals at 14.62% making them the country’s third most popular party, snatching that position from the Libertarian Party UK for the first time since the 12th of January.

In a Sky News leadership debate on Thursday night, the party’s new leader, facing off against his rival, revealed that Mr 06 had set a personal target for the party’s national polling number of 10%. Mr Raymondo said that the “drop in the polls was the biggest reason for him to leave. He set a personal target of 10% and when we dropped below… it was an eye opener for all of us.” Mr Cow99 also confirmed the existence of the target but said that “I had no idea… I knew he had a personal target but he gave no indication [that he would resign]. He was still working well as leader… We’d suffered drops in the past but it built up too much and maybe he felt like he personally failed. A big shame that he’s decided to go.”

A Guardian poll published yesterday evening with the speed of a legless tortoise and the exclusivity of a send-to-all text had indicated that Mr Raymondo was set to win by a large margin. The survey of 9 Liberal Democrat members put the North and Central Wales MP on 87.5% support, but came with the caveat that, although he would almost certainly win, it would likely be a much smaller margin. The final result, while tighter, still represents a comfortable win for the relative newcomer, originally from the British Antarctic Territory.

In his manifesto for the position, seen exclusively by the Guardian with the consent of the Liberal Democrats, Mr Raymondo says starkly that “The Liberal Democrats have a long and proud history of serving the British people in parliament… Our ability to do this, however, is at risk… Unless we turn our party around our future is uncertain.” He carries on by saying, “In the Liberal Democrats, we have a dire situation. Poll after poll, our numbers continue dropping. This poses an existential threat to our party… I have a solution for this,” he promises.

His plans to deal with this include contacting members to take part in Parliamentary debates with the party’s position on the relevant issues, a debating leaderboard of the performance of party members in debates, an increased press presence – “the press is our parties [sic] voice,” he says – an election “strategy to minimise our losses and make gains,” and a promise to personally help every candidate with their campaigns and to produce a new election guide to help members campaign effectively. Touting his record, Mr Raymondo says that “I have been one of the most active debaters, commenting on most open debates. Not only this, but I have also worked cross-party in order to deliver legislation with wide support.” “Internally I have helped increase our vote turnout by 8% in my position as Chief Whip,” he also says.

Mr Cow99 also used his manifesto to tout his experience, saying in his foreword that “At the time this manifesto is released, I will have been a member of the Liberal Democrats for nearly a full year. In that time, I’ve served as Northern Ireland Secretary, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Shadow Chancellor, Shadow Leader of the Lords, and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats.” Addressing his ideological position in the party, long a point of contention, he says, “When I first joined, I considered myself to be firmly on the left wing of the party. Honestly, I still do. But, when all things are said and done, we have joined together under banners beyond that of conservative, centrist, or socialist. We are liberals, progressives, and cosmopolitans, and our party should espouse these values first and foremost.”

He also acknowledges the same challenge affecting the party when he says, “Whoever we elect as Leader will be the one tasked with revitalising the party after our recent slump in activity.” As a way to tackle this, he had proposed a Policy Submission Forum, “in which members can propose and debate their own ideas to make manifesto creation both easier and more transparent, as well as form a basis for speeches and further debates in the Houses of Parliament.”

He also took a shot at the so-called “Tear Gas Coalition” – a name for the Tory-LPUK government coined by opposition leaders after they introduced a bill that would legalise the use of tear gas on violent protesters – but does not rule out some sort of post-election deal with them providing they make major concessions, including “a promise to completely repeal or reverse most legislation proposed in the so-called ‘Gregfest’ series of bills.” His first act as leader, according to the document, would have been to hold the first party conference for some time.

El_Raymondo will do his first interview with the Guardian since being elected tomorrow with publication soon after. One of his focuses as leader is likely to be on preparing for the general election which is due to be held on the 10th of August with results to be counted and declared on the 11th of August. The Guardian will bring you all of the build up to the election over the next few weeks and all of the twists of the campaign and Sky News, the Guardian’s broadcasting arm, will bring you all of the results with an election night special programme.