Former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has complained that his party got one million more votes than the SNP - but only one seventh of the MPs.
The Lib Dems collapsed from almost 60 MPs to just eight at the General Election.
At the same time the SNP surged from six to 56 MPs.
"Yet (the electoral maths) is the reality we need to deal with," Mr Clegg told activists at the Lib Dem annual conference in Bournemouth.
And he predicted his party would be the "comeback kids" of politics, starting with next year's Holyrood elections.
His comments came as he warned his party's annual conference in Bournemouth that the upcoming 2017 EU referendum could lead to Scottish independence.
Mr Clegg, who received a sustained standing ovation from the hall as well as tears from some members of the audience, also called on voters not to retreat to the "false appeal of nationalism and chauvinism".
On the EU vote he said: "The stakes could not be higher: not just one, but two, unions now hang in the balance.
"If we vote to leave the EU, I have no doubt that the SNP will gleefully grab the opportunity to persuade the people of Scotland to leave the UK as well."
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