On 28 July 1988, Paddy Ashdown was elected as the first leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats (SLD), the party formed just four months earlier from the merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

The creation of the SLD in March 1988 had been a fraught and deeply chaotic process, following years of electoral cooperation as the SDP-Liberal ‘Alliance’. The merger was supported by Liberal leader David Steel and the bulk of the SDP, now led by Robert Maclennan. But David Owen, the former SDP leader and ‘gang of four’ grandee, expressed his vehement opposition.

Owen established a breakaway “continuing” SDP.

Under the interim joint-leadership of Steel and Maclennan, the SLD faced significant internal divisions and external credibility issues. The party finished a poor third in the July 1988 Kensington by-election on 10.8%, down 6.5 points on the 1987 general election.

Neither Steel nor Maclennan stood in the 1988 leadership contest. Instead, the election pitted Ashdown, the MP for Yeovil and a former Royal Marine, against Alan Beith, the MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed, who was seen as representing the more traditional Liberal wing of the party. The election was conducted under an alternative vote (AV) ‘one-member-one-vote’ system.

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Commentators almost universally referred to the inaugural Social and Liberal Democrats leadership battle as “bland”, despite the intellectual and stylistic divides on show.

The dynamic Ashdown, seen as the favourite candidate of ex‐SDP members, campaigned on a platform of attempting to replace the Labour Party as the leading non-Conservative party in British politics.

Ashdown, 47, proposed a clear break with the traditions of both the SDP and Liberals – not to mention the bitter merger negotiations. He argued the party should adopt a “forward looking” message, suggesting a name change along these lines: “the Democrats”.

Beith had served as chief whip and deputy leader of the old Liberal Party; he had no intention of losing the “Liberal” label, and his campaign criticised Ashdown for being “outside the Liberal tradition”. (A Beith supporter, reportedly Alex Carlile, issued a list of 15 reasons why Ashdown was not fit to be SLD leader – the intervention elicited a ticking off from David Steel).

Ashdown won 71.9% of the vote (41,401 votes) compared to Beith’s 28.1% (16,202 votes). Ashdown had established himself as the frontrunner, but his margin of victory exceeded expectations.

In his first press conference as leader, Ashdown said his bruised and divided party must “look beyond” internal politics “to the concerns of our nation”. He proposed a “decent, effective and responsible” alternative to Thatcherism.

He dismissed the prospect of any pre-election pacts, declaring: “We’re on our own – we’re going to make it on our own”.

In an article for the Guardian, published 29 July 1988, Ashdown looked forward to the “end of a bruising and often damaging period in the fortunes of the Social and Liberal Democrats.”

He called for “new thinking and imagination” to establish a unique “feel” of the new party.

He wrote: “It will, I hope, be different from both the old Liberals and the old SDP, whilst a clear inheritor of both traditions. A party committed to the human values and concerned with the human condition, of course.

“But forward looking, capable of taking the tough decision, technocratic and concerned with efficiency and enterprise as well.”

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Ashdown initially pursued a strategy of “equidistance” between Labour and the Conservatives, prioritising the need to forge a clear political identity.

Ashdown suffered a symbolic setback in the 1989 Richmond by-election. The continuity SDP won 32.2% of the vote, narrowly behind the Conservative candidate, William Hague, on 37.2%. The SLD placed third with 22.1% of the vote.

The party also failed to return any MEPs in the June 1989 European parliament election, recording just 6.4% of the vote.

In October 1989, the party was renamed the Liberal Democrats – the unwieldy “Social and Liberal Democrats” had been reduced to “Salads” by its critics.

In May 1990, Owen formally wound up his lingering SDP outfit after the Bootle by-election. His party had finished seventh on 155 votes, below the Monster Raving Loony.

After the 1992 general election, which saw the Lib Dems win 20 seats (down two) on 17.8% of the vote, Ashdown abandoned equidistance – establishing the party as an explicitly anti-Conservative force and signalling his willingness to cooperate with Tony Blair’s Labour Party.

This strategy contributed to the party’s significant breakthrough in the 1997 general election, when it won 46 seats.

Ashdown stepped down as Liberal Democrat leader in August 1999. He maintained that his resignation had long been telegraphed to allies, including Blair as prime minister, but it took Westminster by surprise.

In his resignation letter, Ashdown stated: “This has not been an easy decision to make. I shall lay all this down with great sadness. But also with some sense of achievement.”

He told BBC News: “The party was a wreckage 11 years ago. When I hand the party over I want to make sure it is firmly and properly established and it is a strong party going on the up.

“Too many leaders go when they are kicked out or carried out. I have always said that I will go when people say, ‘Why are you going?’ not ‘Why aren’t you going?’.”

Under Ashdown’s leadership, the Liberal Democrats overtook the Conservatives to become the second largest party in local government with 4,600 councillors.

Ashdown was succeeded as leader by Charles Kennedy, a critic of Lib-Lab cooperation. Kennedy was previously described as “Ashdown’s Hezza” – the Michael Heseltine to his Margaret Thatcher. Unsurprisingly then, the new Lib Dem leader was not considered to be Ashdown’s preferred successor.