A COUNCILLOR who clung onto power while fellow Liberal Democrats lost their seats in the local elections has backed Nick Clegg to carry on leading the party.

Councillor Liz Smith scraped to victory by 17 votes in Claines, Worcester – a ward she was first elected to represent 21 years ago after narrowly losing by nine votes on a previous occasion.

On election night she confessed she was “more fearful than hopeful” of getting enough votes to win but bucked the national trend to retain her seat.

So maybe it is not surprising that she is not one of the ones calling for Mr Clegg to step down in the wake of those results and the emphatic loss of the Alternative Vote referendum.

Coun Smith said: “I support the coalition and I support Nick Clegg.

“From my point of view we didn’t go into this coalition to win party political accolades, we went in because we felt there was a national emergency and, given the election results, had to address that.

“The next few months and year ahead is going to be very difficult though. I think Nick Clegg is safe internally but his position could depend on how the situation pans out externally.

“I think there’s only really one obvious alternative – Chris Huhne – and I don’t think he is tremendously well placed at the moment.”

Coun Smith said she is always surprised by how much national politics impacts on local elections but added she was braced for bad news.

“I knew it was going to be close but I tried to remain positive,” she said. “It was quite tense.”

When asked why she managed to win when others lost Coun Smith said: “I think I have got a very strong local base in that part of Worcester.

“I think a lot of people who might still be unhappy with the Government probably still voted for me because of that history of representing them.”