David Cameron and Nick Clegg have displayed a united front as they tried to play down tensions within the year-old coalition between their parties.
Twelve months on from their opening press conference in the Downing Street garden, the pair once again swapped jokes and tried to sound relaxed.
Voters should judge the success of the Tory-Lib Dem partnership on what it had delivered after five years, not day-to-day "fripperies", said the Prime Minister.
But their joint appearance came on the heels of the latest exposure of serious faultlines after a revolt by Lib Dem peers saw a key law and order policy rejected by the House of Lords.
In a shock vote, 13 joined forces with Labour to help strip the creation of directly-elected police commissioners from the flagship Police and Social Responsibility Bill.
Critics said the Government had not delivered the "strict checks and balances" on the powerful individuals promised in the coalition agreement and voted instead for appointed commissioners.
Deputy Prime Minister Mr Clegg vowed to overturn the defeat in the Commons, telling his party that it had a "duty" to implement policies - even if Tory-led - that were in the joint programme.
He has vowed to show a more "muscular" Lib Dem influence within the coalition after being blamed by many activists for the party's hammering at the hands of voters across the UK last week.
Giving evidence to the Commons political and constitutional reform committee, he appeared keen to stress that the idea was not one which had been promoted by his party.
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"It is a coalition agreement commitment and I take very seriously, even in cases which don't, as I say, flow from one side of the coalition, our collective duty to honour what we've said we were going to do in the coalition agreement," he said. "And that's why the Government will seek to reverse that vote last night."
