Lib Dem election post mortem misses the point, AM says

A Lib Dem report which does not blame ex-leader Nick Clegg for their election defeat will "spectacularly" miss the point, an assembly member has claimed.

Peter Black was commenting on press reports, external that an internal party inquiry will point to an "utterly ruthless" Tory operation targeting Lib Dem seats.

The AM said Mr Clegg's broken promise on tuition fees left the party "damaged with a massively unpopular leader".

"Nothing the campaign team did could repair that," he added.

Writing on his blog, external ahead of the Lib Dems' annual conference in Bournemouth, Mr Black said he did not think going into coalition with the Conservatives in 2010 doomed the Lib Dems to defeat in 2015.

But he said the party had not been "strong enough" in challenging Tory policies on tuition fees, the so-called bedroom tax and health reform in England.

He added: "Our naivety and our inexperience in government allowed our opponents to paint a picture that permanently weakened our organisation, decimated our membership and lost us the tactical voters that had elected many of our MPs.

"It left us vulnerable to the ruthless tactics deployed by the Tories during the General Election and cost us scores of seats."

Mr Black said he hoped the "new leadership and the different direction" taken by new leader Tim Farron could help the party "repair those wounds".

A Liberal Democrat spokesman said the party would not comment on a report that had not been completed.