UK party boss faces mutiny over drinking problem

By Andrew Gray

LONDON (Reuters) – The leader of one of Britain’s three
main political parties faced a mutiny by followers on Friday
when he refused to resign after admitting he had undergone
treatment for alcohol abuse.

One senior party figure called Charles Kennedy, leader of
the Liberal Democrats, a “dead man walking” and others vowed to
resign from party posts next week if he did not go.

But Kennedy, 46, who led the historically centrist third
party to its best showing in decades in an election last year
as the only major party leader to oppose the war in Iraq, said
he wants to see off any leadership challenge.

Kennedy had long denied alcoholism, but admitted he had had
medical help for the problem in a dramatic address on Thursday,
shortly before a television station was due to run an expose on
his drinking.

He said he would still seek re-election as party chief, but
senior party figures were scathing.

“What’s the horrible American expression? He’s a dead man
walking,” said Chris Davies, the party’s UK delegation leader
in the European Parliament in Brussels. “People are not going
to vote for a party because they feel sorry for its leader.”

Jenny Tonge, a party member of the House of Lords, said she
hoped members of parliament would force a confidence vote in
Kennedy next week.

“If you were looking for someone to play the part of Tarzan
you wouldn’t employ a one-legged actor. And if we’re looking
for someone to lead our party, we wouldn’t deliberately go for
an alcoholic,” Tonge said.

A survey in the Evening Standard newspaper found 16 of 23
members of his own shadow cabinet now want Kennedy out.

“Last Orders for Kennedy,” the paper said in a headline,
echoing the traditional call before closing time in British
pubs.

The party’s leader since 1999, Kennedy said he had been
tackling alcoholism for the past 18 months, had been dry for
two months and believed the problem was “essentially resolved.”

Kennedy told reporters he had received many messages of
support.

“We’re a one member, one vote party and I believe I’ve the
members’ strong support,” he said outside his London home. A
spokesman said he would not quit over the weekend.

The party enjoyed a surge in last May’s election, in part
because the larger, right-wing opposition Conservatives had
backed British Prime Minister Tony Blair over the war in Iraq.
Kennedy campaigned for the Liberal Democrats as “the real
opposition.”

But some members of parliament have expressed increasing
concern at his leadership as they see the Conservatives revive
under their young new leader, David Cameron.