(England Twitter)-Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats have received a "kicking" from voters and suffered heavy losses in the local elections as the Scottish Nationalist Party celebrated significant gains north of the border.
We've taken a real kicking in the ballot box tonight," Lib Dem lawmaker John Leech wrote on social messaging site Twitter.
Lib Dem popularity has plummeted since they formed a coalition with the centre-right Conservatives last year, a decision that put them into government for the first time in 80 years and created Britain's first coalition since World War Two.
Leader Ed Miliband will be disappointed by the result north of the border as success there would have been seen as a significant sign of recovery a year after Labour was kicked out of Downing Street.
Former Lib Dem minister Evan Harris said the party had to change its coalition strategy. "We don't need to be as collegiate as we have been over the past year," he told the BBC, adding he expected Lib Dem politicians to make clearer the areas where they disagreed with and opposed the Conservatives.
Britons were also expected to reject a proposal to change the country's voting system in a referendum that was the main prize secured by the Lib Dems when they entered government after decades in the political wilderness.
Recent polls suggest the Yes camp's initial lead disintegrated as voters decided against switching from the current system.
The Prime Minister, the Tories and many Labour backbenchers have campaigned for a No vote.
