Clegg makes appeal to Labour voters

Nick Clegg will urge voters not to sleep-walk into a Tory government as he appeals to disenchanted Labour supporters to back the Liberal Democrats instead.

The Lib Dem leader will warn that Britain is in danger of being "taken in" by his Tory counterpart David Cameron and installing him in Downing Street by default.

In his keynote speech to the Lib Dems' annual conference in Bournemouth, he will appeal to voters who regard his own party as a wasted vote to "think again".

"Elections are decided by your cross on the ballot paper. Power is not any party's to be inherited - power is yours to give to whoever you choose. So don't turn away, don't stay at home, don't vote Conservative just because you think it's the only option," Mr Clegg will say.

The leader's speech - on the final day of the autumn gathering - comes as he is facing a growing frontbench revolt over his plans for public spending cuts.

A string of senior MP colleagues have criticised his call for "savage" cuts and moves to means-test child tax credits and ditch the Lib Dems' totemic pledge to abolish tuition fees.

He and Vince Cable, the party's Treasury spokesman, have also faced hostility for apparently failing to consult frontbench MPs about plans for a new "mansion tax" on £1 million-plus homes.

Mr Clegg will try to use his speech to reassert his authority and win over disgruntled delegates in what will be his last annual conference speech before the next election.

But he will also seek to reach out to people who do not usually vote Lib Dem as he seeks to supplant a Labour Party that he will describe as "lost".

"If you supported Labour in 1997 because you wanted fairness, you wanted young people to flourish, you wanted political reform, you wanted the environment protected, or you simply believed in a better future, turn to the Liberal Democrats," he will say.