Interview with Nick Clegg: 'I think voters will judge us kindly... we will massively surprise people' in the election

 
“Resolute” : Nick Clegg, who will this weekend head to Liverpool for what could be his last spring conference as leader of the Liberal Democrats Picture: Jeremy Selwyn
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Nick Clegg strolls cheerfully across Horse Guards Parade, where over 360 years ago Charles I was led to the executioner’s block.

The defeated king, famously, wore two heavy shirts so that he would not tremble in the chill and be thought a coward. Clegg grins like a schoolboy and lets his business suit flap open in the breeze, revealing a youthful figure with no sign of Whitehall sag.

No politician’s head has spent longer on the chopping block than the Deputy Prime Minister’s. Yet like Charles I, he faces the possibility of political extinction with equanimity.

“I think the history books will judge us very kindly,” Clegg said, philosophically. “And I also happen to think the voters will judge us kindly on May 7 because we did the right thing for the country.”

Clegg genuinely believes he knows something that the tomato-throwing mob has not worked out. First, he is sure that there will be more Liberal Democrat MPs left standing than media commentators expect come May 8. Secondly, he is certain there will be more Lib-Dem MPs than newly-elected Scottish National Party members, which means that in any hung parliament, it will be to his office that the would-be prime ministers will flock for a deal.

“I think we will massively surprise people,” he said. Easy to say, but Clegg has the fresh eyes and clear skin of a man getting plenty of sleep and exercise, one untroubled by self-doubt.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Evening Standard, the Deputy PM unveiled a “radical, bold” plan to steal the Tories’ clothes as the party of home ownership.

Mr Clegg in his office Picture: Jeremy Selwyn

He also lifted a veil on what his election manifesto will say about the airports capacity crisis — revealing phrases that will be interpreted as opening the door to a second runway at Gatwick.

And he hinted that the wealthy face a tax sting in next week’s Budget.

On housing, his big idea is called “rent to own” and it could let tens of thousands of young Londoners overcome the hurdle of mortgage deposits by renting a new home which, after 30 years of paying rent, they would own outright.

Clegg said he understood why the aspiration to own a home was so important to millions of Britons, and the frustration of Generation Renters who feel excluded.

“To aspire to own your own home … gosh, I mean Miriam and I have been through the emotional excitement of having kids, finding a home. There’s no greater sense of belonging to a family than doing that.”

He revealed the plan has been worked up in Whitehall but sat upon by Tories, including Communities Secretary Eric Pickles. “I’m not going to hide my frustration that small c and Big C conservativism in Whitehall have not let us run with this, but it’s going to be core in our manifesto.”

Another key manifesto passage will deal with airports. Last year the party conference snubbed Clegg by ruling out any expansion. The manifesto will confirm that, but Clegg admitted it would also contain a reference to the Davies Commission report in July, which the industry will see as keeping the door ajar.

“The manifesto will have to repeat what we have agreed collectively. But I’ve learnt the hard way that you have also got to set expectations within the bounds of reality,” he said, referring to the tuition fees U-turn.

“That’s why of course we will listen to the evidence.”

He was ferociously emphatic that Heathrow is not expandable, but did not rule out Gatwick in the same way.

Clegg also confirmed that Home Secretary Theresa May is blocking Boris Johnson’s request for permission to deploy water cannon in London.

“I agree with her on water cannon,” he said.

On anti-terror laws, Clegg insisted he was right to oppose Mrs May’s so-called Snoopers’ Charter and reform control orders, despite claims that his liberal stance endangers security. “What I am not going to do is legislate to dramatically weaken our freedom,” he said. “You don’t make yourself safe by making yourself significantly less free.”

With the Budget less than a week away, Clegg was candid about Coalition divisions between him and a “doctrinaire” George Osborne. It is time, he said, to “show people how the sausages are made”.

He said the Budget would “include more measures than maybe people expected”, and hinted at another rise in the tax-free allowance, a flagship Lib-Dem policy.

When it comes to tax rises, he suggested the rich would be hit first because fairness means “you start at the top and work down”.

This weekend, Clegg heads to Liverpool for what could be his last spring conference as leader of the Liberal Democrats. But he believes the party is in “resolute” mood, confident that its low poll ratings do not reflect the strong performance in key battlegrounds like the seven London seats.

He admitted there was one form of political afterlife he might experience — being caretaker Deputy Premier during talks in the event of a hung parliament, a process that could take weeks. Reluctantly, he confirmed: “You need a Government to keep the lights on.”

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