Lib Dems gather after poll victory

Charles Kennedy wants his party to be the real opposition

The Liberal Democrats are gathering for their annual conference, buoyed by their surprise victory in the Brent East by-election.

The Lib Dems' Sarah Teather seized one of Labour's safest seats in the key north London by-election on Thursday.

The party is hoping to build on that success over the Brighton get-together in the coming week.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, who arrives in Brighton on Saturday, described the result as a "great fillip" for his party.

He plans to keep up the pressure on Labour during the conference, with major speeches and debates.

He will particularly focus on the Iraq war, which he said was a "significant" reason for Labour's defeat in the by-election.

BRENT EAST RESULT Sarah Teather (Lib Dem) 8,158 Robert Evans (Labour) 7,040 Uma Fernandes (Conservative) 3,368

He is also likely to make clear that any links with Labour are now over.

But the Tories are his real target - he says his party is now on course to overtake them as the real opposition to Labour.

However, Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith will tell the Scottish Conservative conference in Perth on Saturday that the Liberal Democrats made a "blunder" over Iraq, by appearing to move from the centre ground of politics to somewhere on the left of Labour.

"The result is that people who voted for Red Ken Livingstone in the 1980s are now voting for the Liberal Democrats," he will say.

Monarchy debate

Other topics up for discussion at the conference include replacing council tax with income tax; pensions, university tuition fees and terrorism.

The party's foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell will give a major speech on the ethics of the war, and there will be a debate on the ethics on weapons of mass destruction.

Delegates will also discuss doing more to protect against terrorism by appointing a senior cabinet minister to look after homeland security.

And the party's youth wing the Liberal Democrats Youth and Students (LDYS) have tabled a motion calling for a referendum on the future of the monarchy.

Ms Teather's victory means the Lib Dems will now have 54 MPs in Westminster. That is more members than any third party since 1929.

The result prompted Labour former minister Frank Field to warn that Labour could be at risk of losing the next General Election, while Glenda Jackson repeated her call for Mr Blair to quit.

But Mr Blair's official spokesman insisted the government would not be diverted from its reform agenda - despite major concerns from within the Labour party.