The leaders of Britain's coalition government vowed Monday to stick together to deliver a radical deficit-busting austerity plan, despite growing rifts over welfare cuts, constitutional reform and European ties.
Giving a mid-term assessment of the historic coalition agreement struck in May 2010, conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, pledged to see the alliance through to the end of its five-year term in 2015.
"This was not, and is not, a short-term arrangement," said Cameron.
"I have never for one minute doubted the wisdom of that decision," added Clegg about his move to return the Liberals to power in Britain for the first time in more than 70 years.
The coalition has recently been rocked by differences over Britain's future in the European Union, reform of the House of Lords, welfare cuts and media regulation.
Clegg said he took "immense pride" in the fact that, unlike in other European countries, Britain's political parties had put "partisan differences aside" to join together in fighting to restore economic stability after the upheavals of the 2008 financial crisis.
But both he and Cameron rejected analogies of their alliance to a marriage, as often suggested by the media.
"We are married, not to each other. We are both happily married, and, you know, this is a government and not a relationship," Cameron told reporters.