The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, has called for the prime minister to resign in a defiant post-election speech after a mixed night that saw his party lose its biggest beast, Nick Clegg, but make four key gains to return former coalition cabinet ministers Vince Cable and Ed Davey to parliament.
Speaking at the National Liberal Club in Westminster, Farron said Theresa May was reaching out “to form her own coalition of chaos … She put her party before her country. She has been found out. She should be ashamed.”
Farron said the government had been weakened irreversibly. “She has brought weakness and uncertainty. If she has an ounce of self-respect she will resign,” he said.
“The Tories have taken our country for granted too many times. Whatever happens in this coming parliament, the Liberal Democrats will fight for you, your family and for your community.”
Farron, who was introduced by newly elected Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran, repeated his election pledge that the Lib Dems would not go into coalition with either the Conservatives or Labour, and said they would judge a Queen’s speech on its merits.
“If Theresa May, or any other Conservative, approaches the Liberal Democrats and asks for our support to deliver their agenda, let me make our position clear: no deal is better than a bad deal,” he said, in a mock echo of May’s Brexit strategy.
“There will be no deals, no coalitions and no confidence and supply arrangements. If the government puts a Queen’s speech or a budget in front of us, we will judge it on whether or not we think it is good for the country – and if it isn’t, then we will not support it.”
Sources said Farron’s position as leader was “bulletproof” despite the MP seeing his own majority slashed to just 777 votes from over 9,000 and a testing campaign that saw him repeatedly quizzed on his attitude to homosexuality and abortion. Farron said the party had “made progress in incredibly difficult circumstances and we face the new parliament in a far stronger position than we left the last one.”
Cable regained his old seat of Twickenham and Ed Davey won in Kingston and Surbiton, though the party lost its byelection gain in Richmond Park by under 50 votes to the Conservatives’ Zac Goldsmith. Two other MPs returned to parliament having lost their seats in 2015, Jo Swinson and Stephen Lloyd.
Alistair Carmichael, Norman Lamb and Tom Brake also held their seats, the latter two defying predictions that they were at risk in Brexit-leaning constituencies.
Lib Dem sources privately admitted they were taken aback by Lloyd’s return in Eastbourne, given the pro-Brexit vote in the seat, but organisers made strategic decisions early in the campaign to concentrate Farron’s battle bus in remain areas, rather than take it to places where a second referendum on the EU might be unpopular, such as Lamb’s North Norfolk seat.
Lamb, a prominent figure in the last parliament, played no part in the national campaign, concentrating everything on local efforts to keep the seat.
Along with Clegg, the party lost two other MPs, Greg Mulholland in Leeds North West and Mark Williams in Ceredigion.
In a tribute to the former deputy prime minister, Farron called Clegg “a giant of British politics, a friend and a hero to me and to countless others”. He praised the party’s former leader, who lost his seat to Labour, for joining the coalition government and listed achievements such as the pupil premium and same-sex marriage.
“I could stand here and keep listing Nick’s achievements, but it would take hours,” he said. “Have no doubt, history will be kind to Nick. And the new parliament will be immensely poorer without the insight, expertise and passion he brings, especially to the Brexit debate.”
Four new MPs were added to the party’s tally, a 50% increase in their still small parliamentary party – Christine Jardine, Wera Hobhouse, Layla Moran and Jamie Stone. Farron, whose parliamentary party in 2015 was eight white men, said he was pleased the party had made “real progress” on diversity.
It was in Labour-facing seats the party realised they were facing an insurmountable surge, including in Cambridge, Bermondsey and Old Southwark and Vauxhall, all seats the party had hoped to win. Several tiny majorities denied the Lib Dems several more seats including Richmond Park, as well as in North East Fife where the SNP won by two votes and St Ives, where Andrew George was denied a return by 325 votes.
Farron said the result showed there was no mandate for a hard Brexit like May had set out. “She should consider her future – and then, for once, she should consider the future of our country,” he said. “The negotiations should be put on hold until the government has reassessed its priorities and set them out to the British public.
“I believe that history will judge us to have stood on the right side of the argument on Europe. And as the negotiations play out and the reality of Brexit becomes clearer, I believe the case for giving the people the final say over the Brexit deal will only get stronger.”
Farron confirmed he would continue as leader, to loud applause from assembled party members. “I love this party. It is in my DNA,” he said. “Leading it for the last two years has been the utmost privilege.”