Brighton - Mr Paddy Ashdown yesterday suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Liberal Democrat activists who threw out controversial schools reforms proposed by the leadership.
There were loud cheers from delegates as the party conference in Brighton voted overwhelmingly to reject a plan for neighbourhood schools trusts to take over the running of schools from local education authorities.
Mr Ashdown was on the conference platform throughout the two-hour debate as a succession of speakers got up to denounce the scheme as "barmy" and "absurd".
