Lib Dems face toughest election in a generation, says party president

The Liberal Democrats face the fight of their lives in what will be the "toughest general election in a generation", the party's president has admitted.

With the Lib Dems at 8% in the polls and the popularity of their leader Nick Clegg at rock bottom, Tim Farron MP says he recognises that he and his colleagues in the Commons will need to defend their 57 seats "tooth and nail".

The party is desperate to avoid slipping back to the 20-strong force it was in the early 1990s. But Farron, widely regarded as a future Lib Dem leader, insisted that those predicting disaster would be proved wrong.

Writing on this newspaper's website, he says: "For the first time in decades, Lib Dems will face the next election able to do more than just make promises – we will be able to demonstrate our achievements too."

Citing Labour's recovery from the 1983 Tory landslide, the Conservative resurgence after 13 years of Labour rule and the survival of the Lib Dems following the acrimonious merger of the Liberal party with the SDP 25 years ago, he adds: "The Liberal Democrats are gearing up for our toughest general election in a generation. Our preparations are ahead of our opponents', but we are taking no chances.

"We will defend our 57 seats tooth and nail and audaciously take the fight to the other parties in seats we intend to gain. The Lib Dems are the only party able to deliver both a strong economy and a fair society."

Farron also says that he believes his party will be able to distinguish itself from its coalition partner at the election. "The Conservatives have a record of favouring the richest people in society, at the expense of pensioners, people who find themselves on benefits and those working hard on salaries that barely cover their outgoings," he writes.

"In the Liberal Democrats, voters have an option that can outshine Labour on economic competence and shame the Tories when it comes to fairness." Farron adds: "We have siren voices from the Tory right saying that the answer to the borrowing crisis is for gratuitous cuts beyond what is necessary including £10bn in welfare cuts – we said no and we stopped them. To cut more now would be cruel and counterproductive, it would hurt the most vulnerable and it would derail the recovery.

"So as we take note of certain political anniversaries in 2013, we also take note of the political pundits who wrote accompanying premature obituaries for one of Britain's three main parties."