Lib Dems hold election summit

Charles Kennedy: Sees rising fortunes ahead

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy is bringing together the party's MPs and top thinkers for a weekend general election council of war.

The meeting - billed by as a summit of leading Liberal Democrats - comes as the party is increasingly confident that it can take seats from the Conservatives in the south and Labour in the north.

The Lib Dem leadership believes 50 more Conservative-held seats could fall to the party following its recent triumph at the Romsey by-election.

Home affairs spokesman Simon Hughes told BBC News Online his party's had to "identify the seats you can win and then also the seats you can hold".

"If we'd held all the seats we'd won since the last war we would have 100 seats now and not 47, so the first task is to make sure we don't lose any.

"The second is to spot those seats where Labour and the Tories are vulnerable and they're enough of those around the country - seats with majorities of only a few hundreds or of few thousands.

"So I think we must concentrate, putting it brutally. on going from about 50 seats to about 100 seats."

About 100 of the party's MPs, candidates for key target seats and election strategists are attending the weekend meeting in Bristol.

'Up the ante'

Party members will hear Mr Kennedy urge them to "up the ante" against the Tories while maintaining pressure on Labour seats in key areas.

Following the Romsey contest on May 4, where the Lib Dems took the seat from the Tories in the by-election caused by the death of Michael Colvin, party strategists are convinced widespread tactical voting against the Tories could reap rewards at the next election.

According to reports, private polling by the Liberal Democrat shows that 86% of those asked would want more spending on the NHS, education and pensions rather than tax cuts.

A party spokesman refused to disclose how many Tory-held target seats were now lined up, but added: "This weekend will be very much about how we capitalise on the Romsey result and win more seats.

"There's now a very good chance we can take more seats from the Tories."

The party's polling also showed that voters still had strong memories of the last Tory government and mistrusted Conservatives on public services.

"There a lot in the figures that give us very considerable hope for the next general election," added the spokesman.