Nick Clegg has delivered a rallying call to the party faithful at the LibDem conference in Birmingham.
In a speech to kick off the five-day event, the Deputy Prime Minister told those assembled that “we are punching above our weight”.
“Three-quarters of our manifesto is being delivered,” he said. “Not bad given we have just 8 per cent of the MPs in Westminster... and only five cabinet members.”
On compromise with their coalition partners, Clegg said: “we did not win the election, so we can’t do everything we want… but the government has a distinct liberal voice and you will hear it.”
Clegg admitted that many activists were still uncomfortable about his pact with David Cameron and the party's slump in the polls.
But he promised to take a tougher approach with his Conservative colleagues.
"We never oppose for the sake of opposition but we never shrink from telling it like it is and fighting for what is right," he told the party.
"If that makes us a bit awkward, a bit challenging, a bit difficult, so be it. We are prepared to be awkward. It's the same quality that makes Liberal Democrat ministers fight tooth and nail in their departments for the things we believe in.
"In government, it means sometimes we have to be awkward. As our Coalition partners are finding out on a daily basis, we are not here to make things easy. We're here to put things right.
“We can’t have all our fights in public,” he continued. “While people are struggling, they don’t want to see their leaders squabbling.
"I won’t tell you about all the arguments I'm having, but we are fighting for liberal democratic values every single day.
“We are proving you can do things differently in British politics.
“We were told a hung parliament would lead to chaos… it didn’t. We have proved the doubters wrong. We are proving coalition politics works.
“We are putting our differences aside and putting the country first.
“People can no longer claim we’re not up to the job, that we don’t have it in us to put our necks on the line for the country. We are no longer a luxury vote or a protest vote.
“We’re proving we can be trusted to govern from the centre, for the people.”