Later commentary suggests that during this period Ashdown lost touch with his party and that his pursuit of this common agenda ultimately led to his resignation.
[1] Blair and Ashdown also agreed to create the Jenkins Commission to conduct a public inquiry into the case for electoral reform.
However, Blair remained unconvinced of the case for electoral reform,[citation needed] and the commission's recommendations have never been passed into law.
The plan to bring Liberal Democrats into the government continued, according to Ashdown's published diaries,[citation needed] but foundered on opposition from senior Labour ministers, said by Ashdown to have been led by then Chancellor, and later Labour Party leader and Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.
In the run up to the 2010 UK General Election, the Southport Rules came further media investigation, as the likelihood of a hung parliament rose.