Steve Beasant

On the eve of Liberal Democrats’ Party Conference the Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg admitted that there is “no future” for the Liberal Democrats as a left-wing alternative to Labour as he appealed to his party to show “patience” and maintain a united front with the Conservatives.

Nick Clegg was speaking in to The Independent in an interview with the newspaper as the party prepares for its most significant conference for decades, the conference starts today in Liverpool; he promised his party it would reap the electoral rewards if it held its nerve about its slump in the opinion polls.

Nick Clegg said: “There were some people, particularly around the height of the Iraq war, who gave up on the Labour Party and turned to the Liberal Democrats as a sort of left-wing conscience of the Labour Party.

“I totally understand that some of these people are not happy with what the Lib Dems are doing in coalition with the Conservatives. The Lib Dems never were and aren’t a receptacle for left-wing dissatisfaction with the Labour Party. There is no future for that; there never was.”

Nick Clegg will deliver his keynote speech to the conference on Monday, and will try to reassure his internal critics that he has not become a remote technocrat or lost sight of their concerns since joining the Coalition with the Tories.

He said: “When you go into government, particularly in such a dramatic way, you get a bunch of Liberal Democrats who walk through the door of Whitehall and the rest of the party does not necessarily walk through the door with you.

“So this [conference] is an incredibly important opportunity for those Liberal Democrats who are in government to show people in the party that they retain the same values, instincts and ambitions – that walking through the door of power does not mean you lose your soul.”

Admitting the looming spending cuts were overshadowing the Government’s other work, the Deputy Prime Minister said: “If anything, we are doing the most difficult things now, partly because everything is so obscured by the bad, worrying news about deficit reduction. Rather than it getting worse, maybe over time – after very, very difficult decisions on public spending – the wider purpose and vocation of the Government will become more obvious.”

Admitting the conference took place at a difficult moment, he said: “Public anxiety about the Comprehensive Spending Review is now at its height. We are at the very worst point in the cycle. It is the worst of all worlds. There is acute uncertainty about the unknown and we have not yet been able to put people out of their misery by explaining what is going to happen. That vacuum gets filled by an immense amount of fear and, in some cases, outlandish scaremongering.

“I certainly didn’t go into politics to make cuts. I really hope that come the next election in five years, we will not be defined by cuts alone.

“People will look back on the deficit reduction plan and realise it was necessary to get the economy going and they will see a wider picture – a new kind of politics after the expenses scandal; greater fairness in our schools; a more accountable health service and restored civil liberties.”

To read Nick Clegg’s full interview in the Independent, view HERE