Nick Clegg

The Right Honourable Nick Clegg MP
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	John Prescott
Lord President of the Council
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	The Lord Mandelson
Leader of the Liberal Democrats
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 December 2007
Deputy	Vince Cable Simon Hughes
Preceded by	Vince Cable (Acting)
Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesman
In office 2 March 2006 – 18 December 2007
Leader	Menzies Campbell
Preceded by	Mark Oaten
Succeeded by	Chris Huhne
Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Richard Allan
Member of the European Parliament for East Midlands
In office 10 June 1999 – 10 June 2004
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Bill Newton Dunn
Majority	15,284 (29.9%)
Personal details
Born	Nicholas William Peter Clegg (1967-01-07) 7 January 1967 Chalfont St Giles, England
Political party	Liberal Democrats
Spouse(s)	Miriam González Durántez (2000–present)
Children	Antonio Alberto Miguel
Alma mater	Robinson College, Cambridge University of Minnesota, Twin Cities College of Europe
Religion	None (atheist)
Website	nickclegg.com nickclegg.org.uk
a. ^ Office vacant from 27 June 2007 – 11 May 2010

Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British politician who has been Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Lord President of the Council (with special responsibility for political and constitutional reform) since 2010, as part of the coalition government headed by Prime Minister David Cameron. Clegg has been the Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2007, and a Member of Parliament (MP) representing Sheffield Hallam since 2005. He was previously a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and an award winning journalist for the Financial Times.

Clegg was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election and became the Liberal Democrats' Home Affairs spokesperson in 2006. Clegg became Deputy Prime Minister following the 2010 general election, when the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government with the Conservative Party. As well as his parliamentary roles, Clegg has contributed to many pamphlets and books on political issues. He has also had a large number of jobs, including being a skiing instructor and working in the office of a bank in Helsinki.

Clegg attended the University of Cambridge, the University of Minnesota, and the College of Europe in Belgium. He speaks fluent English, French, Dutch, German, and Spanish. He is married to Miriam González Durántez and has three sons. Clegg's personal wealth is estimated at £1.9 million.

Early life and family

Clegg was born in 1967 in Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire. He is the third of four children of Nicholas Peter Clegg, CBE, the chairman of United Trust Bank, and a former trustee of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation (where Ken Clarke was an adviser). On his father's side of the family Clegg is related to Kira von Engelhardt, daughter of a Russian baron of German, Polish, and Ukrainian origin, Ignaty Zakrevsky, an attorney general of the Imperial Russian senate, the writer Moura Budberg, and his English grandfather Hugh Anthony Clegg, editor of the British Medical Journal for 35 years.

Clegg's Dutch mother, Hermance van den Wall Bake, was interned, along with her family, by the Japanese military in Batavia (Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) during World War Two. She met Clegg's father during a visit to England in 1956, and they married on 1 August 1959.

Clegg is multilingual: he speaks English, French, Dutch, German, and Spanish. His background has informed his politics. He says, "There is simply not a shred of racism in me, as a person whose whole family is formed by flight from persecution, from different people in different generations. It’s what I am. It’s one of the reasons I am a liberal." His Dutch mother instilled in him "a degree of scepticism about the entrenched class configurations in British society".

Education

Clegg was educated at two independent schools: at Caldicott School in Farnham Royal in South Buckinghamshire, where he was joint Head Prefect in 1980, and later at Westminster School in Central London. As a 16-year-old exchange student in Munich, he and a friend drunkenly set fire to what he called "the leading collection of cacti in Germany". When news of the incident was reported during his time as Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Clegg said he had behaved "appallingly, irresponsibly, criminally", and that he was "not proud" of it. He was arrested and not formally charged, but performed a kind of community service.

He spent a gap year working as a skiing instructor in Austria, before going on to Cambridge University in 1986, where he studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Robinson College. He was active in the student theatre at Cambridge, acting alongside Helena Bonham Carter in a play about AIDS under director Sam Mendes. He was also captain of his college's tennis team, and campaigned for the human rights organisation Survival International. Clegg spent the summer of 1989 as an office junior in Postipankki bank in Helsinki.

It has been alleged that Clegg joined the Cambridge University Conservative Association between 1986 and 1987. However Clegg has maintained he has "no recollection of that whatsoever" of joining the association.

After university, he was awarded a scholarship to study for a year at the University of Minnesota, where he wrote a thesis on the political philosophy of the Deep Green movement. He then moved to New York City, where he worked as an intern under Christopher Hitchens at The Nation, a progressive liberal magazine, where he fact checked Hitchens' articles.

Clegg next moved to Brussels, where he worked alongside Guy Spier for six months as a trainee in the G24 co-ordination unit which delivered aid to the countries of the former Soviet Union. After the internship he took a second master's degree at the College of Europe in Bruges, a university for European studies in Belgium, where he met his wife, Miriam González Durántez, a lawyer and the daughter of a Spanish senator. Nick Clegg is an alumnus of the " Mozart Promotion" (1991–92) of the College of Europe.

Careers outside politics

Between 1992–1993, he was employed by GJW Government Relations Ltd, which lobbied on behalf of Libya.

In 1993, Clegg won the Financial Times' David Thomas Prize, in remembrance of an FT journalist killed on assignment in Kuwait in 1991. Clegg was the award's first recipient. He was later sent to Hungary, where he wrote articles about the mass privatisation of industries in the former communist bloc.

In April 1994, he took up a post at the European Commission, working in the TACIS aid programme to the former Soviet Union. For two years he was responsible for developing direct aid programmes in Central Asia and the Caucasus, worth €50 million. He was involved in negotiations with Russia on airline overflight rights, and launched a conference in Tashkent in 1993 that founded TRACECA—an international transport programme for the development of a transport corridor for Europe, the Caucasus and Asia. Vice President and Trade Commissioner Leon Brittan then offered Clegg a job in his private office, as a European Union policy adviser and speech writer. As part of this rôle, Clegg was in charge of the EC negotiating team on Chinese and Russian accession talks to the World Trade Organisation.

Written publications

Clegg has written extensively, publishing and contributing to a large number of pamphlets and books. With Dr Richard Grayson he wrote a book in 2002 about the importance of devolution in secondary education systems, based on comparative research across Europe. The final conclusions included the idea of pupil premiums so that children from poorer backgrounds receive the additional resources their educational needs require.

He wrote a controversial pamphlet for the Centre for European Reform advocating devolution and evolution of the European Union, and contributed to the 2004 Orange Book, where he offered market liberal solutions for reform of European institutions. He co-authored a pamphlet with Duncan Brack arguing for a wholesale reform of world trade rules to allow room for a greater emphasis on development, internationally binding environmental treaties, and parliamentary democracy within the WTO system.

Member of the European Parliament (1999–2004)

Clegg was selected as the lead Liberal Democrat euro-candidate for the East Midlands in 1998, and was first tipped as a politician to watch by Paddy Ashdown in 1999. On his election in 1999, he was the first Liberal parliamentarian elected in the East Midlands since Ernest Pickering was elected MP for Leicester West in 1931, and was credited with helping to significantly boost the Liberal Democrat poll rating in the region in the six months after his election. Clegg worked extensively during his time as an MEP to support the party in the region, not least in Chesterfield where Paul Holmes was elected as MP in 2001. Clegg helped persuade Conservative MEP Bill Newton Dunn to defect to the Liberal Democrats, with Newton Dunn subsequently succeeding him as MEP for the East Midlands.

As an MEP, Clegg co-founded the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform, which led calls for reforms to expenses, transparency and accountability in the European Parliament. He was made Trade and Industry spokesman for the European Liberal Democrat and Reform group (ELDR). In December 2000, Nick Clegg became the Parliament's Draftsman on a complex new EU telecoms law relating to " local loop unbundling"—opening-up telephone networks across Europe to competition. Clegg decided to leave Brussels in 2002, arguing in an article in The Guardian newspaper that the battle to persuade the public of the benefits of Europe was being fought at home, not in Brussels.

In 2004 Nick Clegg MEP explained to the Select Committee on European Union Sixteenth Report that the aim of MEPs like himself, who had been active in the debate on the EU's negotiating mandate, was to obtain the right to ratify any major WTO deal entered into by the European Union. The same year Clegg chaired a policy working group for the Liberal Democrats on the Third Age, which focused on the importance of ending the cliff-edge of retirement and providing greater opportunities for older people to remain active beyond retirement. The group developed initial proposals on transforming post offices to help them survive as community hubs, in particular for older people. He served on Charles Kennedy's policy review, "Meeting the Challenge", and the "It's About Freedom" working parties.

Whilst an MEP Clegg, for four years, wrote a fortnightly column for Guardian Unlimited. One particular article in 2002 accused Gordon Brown of encouraging "condescension" towards Germany. In an article, Clegg wrote that "all nations have a cross to bear, and none more so than Germany with its memories of Nazism. But the British cross is more insidious still. A misplaced sense of superiority, sustained by delusions of grandeur and a tenacious obsession with the last war, is much harder to shake off". The article was dusted down during the 2010 General Election campaign when the Daily Mail interpreted the article as being a "Nazi slur on Britain" and Clegg had begun to feel the full heat of the British tabloid press following his success during the first Leaders debate.

Parliamentary candidate

On leaving the European Parliament, Clegg joined political lobbying firm GPlus in April 2004 as a fifth partner:

“

It's especially exciting to be joining GPlus at a time when Brussels is moving more and more to the centre of business concerns. With the EU taking in ten more countries and adopting a new Constitution, organisations need more than ever intelligent professional help in engaging with the EU institutions.

”

Clegg worked on GPlus clients including The Hertz Corporation and British Gas.

In November 2004, then Sheffield Hallam MP Richard Allan announced his intention to stand down from parliament, Clegg was selected as the candidate for Sheffield Hallam constituency. He took up a part-time teaching position in the politics department of the University of Sheffield, combining it with ongoing EU consultancy work with GPlus. He also gave a series of seminar lectures in the international relations Department of the University of Cambridge.

Member of Parliament (2005–present)

Clegg worked closely with Allan throughout the campaign in Sheffield Hallam – including starring in a local pantomime – and won the seat in the 2005 general election with over 50% of the vote, and a majority of 8,682. This result represents one of the smallest swings away from a party in a seat where an existing MP has been succeeded by a newcomer (4.3%) – see Sheffield constituency article. Clegg also campaigned locally on local transport, recycling, housing development and health. He established close links with both of the city's universities and opposed the closure of local services including fire stations and post offices. Before becoming Leader of the party in 2007 he also served as treasurer and secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on National Parks, a particular interest given that his constituency includes part of the Peak District National Park.

Following his election to parliament, Clegg was promoted by Leader Charles Kennedy to be the party's spokesperson on Europe, focusing on the party's preparations for an expected referendum on the European constitution and acting as deputy to Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Menzies Campbell. Clegg's ability to articulate liberal values at a very practical level quickly lent him prominence, with many already seeing him as a future Liberal Democrat Leader. Following the resignation of Charles Kennedy on 7 January 2006, Clegg was touted as a possible leadership contender. He was quick to rule himself out however instead declaring his support for Sir Menzies Campbell ahead of his former colleague in the European Parliament Chris Huhne, with Campbell going on to win the ballot.

Clegg had been a signatory to the letter circulated by Vince Cable prior to Charles Kennedy's resignation, which stated his opposition to working under Kennedy's continued leadership. Some commentators claim that Clegg's support was due to a hope that he would then inherit the leadership when Campbell's age eventually forced him to retire – the so-called rule that "young cardinals elect old popes".

Liberal Democrats' Home Affairs spokesperson

After the 2006 leadership election, Clegg was promoted to be Home Affairs spokesperson, replacing Mark Oaten. In this job he spearheaded the Liberal Democrats' defence of civil liberties, proposing a Freedom Bill to repeal what he described as "unnecessary and illiberal legislation", campaigning against Identity Cards and the retention of innocent people's DNA, and arguing against excessive counter-terrorism legislation. He has campaigned for prison reform, a liberal approach to immigration, and defended the Human Rights Act against ongoing attacks from across the political spectrum. In January 2007, Clegg launched the 'We Can Cut Crime!' campaign, "proposing real action at a national level and acting to cut crime where the Liberal Democrats are in power locally".

Sir Menzies Campbell's resignation

Clegg caused a degree of controversy when at the Liberal Democrat party conference in 2007 he admitted his leadership ambitions to journalists at a fringe event. The admission followed a period of increased media speculation about Sir Menzies Campbell's leadership, which the admission by Clegg did nothing to reduce and resulted in a rebuke by some of his frontbench colleagues. This followed a report from the Daily Mirror's Kevin Macguire that Clegg had failed to hide his disloyalty to Campbell's leadership. Eventually on 15 October 2007 Campbell resigned saying that questions about his leadership were "getting in the way of further progress by the party".

Leader of the Liberal Democrats (2007–present)

Election to the leadership

After the resignation of Campbell, Clegg was regarded by much of the media as front-runner in the leadership election. The BBC's Political Editor Nick Robinson stated the election would be a two-horse race between Clegg and Chris Huhne who had stood against Campbell in the 2006 election. On Friday 19 October 2007, Clegg launched his bid to become leader of the Liberal Democrats. Clegg and Huhne clashed in the campaign over Trident but were largely in agreement on many other issues. It was announced on 18 December that he had won. Clegg was appointed to the Privy Council on 30 January 2008 and affirmed his membership on 12 March 2008.

In his acceptance speech upon winning the leadership contest, Clegg declared himself to be "a liberal by temperament, by instinct and by upbringing" and that he believes "Britain [is] a place of tolerance and pluralism". He has stated that he feels "a profound antagonism for prejudice of all sorts". He declared his priorities as: defending civil liberties; devolving the running of public services to parents, pupils and patients; and protecting the environment.

In an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live on the morning after his election to the leadership, Clegg stated that he does not believe in God, but that he has great respect for people of faith. In 2010, Clegg elaborated on this question, stating "I was asked... one of those questions where you're only allowed to answer "yes" or "no",... I was asked "Do you believe in God?" As it happens I do not know whether God exists. I'm much more of an agnostic."

GQ magazine interview

Clegg's rocky start to the role was exacerbated in March 2008 when GQ magazine ran with an interview conducted by Piers Morgan in which Clegg admitted to sleeping with "no more than 30" women. Senior Lib Dem MPs defended his comments; Lembit Öpik said it showed "you can be a human being and a party Leader", and Norman Lamb that "Nick tries to be absolutely straight in everything that he does, and that might sometimes get him into trouble but he will build a reputation for being honest and straightforward." Speaking to the BBC about the interview Clegg said "wisdom with hindsight is an easy thing" as what had been a split second response had been "taken out of context, interpreted, over interpreted and so on".

Relationships with the frontbench

Upon his election Clegg appointed leadership rival Chris Huhne as his replacement as Home Affairs spokesperson and following his strong performances as acting party Leader, Vince Cable was retained as the main Treasury spokesperson. Media commentators noted that the Clegg-Huhne-Cable triumvirate provided the Liberal Democrats with an effective political team for the coming years. On 5 March 2008 Clegg suffered a real test following the resignation of 3 of his front bench team. David Heath, Alistair Carmichael and Tim Farron had been told to abstain in the vote for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty but had wanted to vote in favour and so defied the whip. In addition to the three frontbenchers a further 12 more backbench Libdem MP's also defied the whip and voted "yes". Seen as an initial test to his authority Clegg said "though we have disagreed on this issue I fully understand and respect their strongly held views on the subject.... However, as they have recognised, the shadow cabinet cannot operate effectively unless the principle of collective responsibility is maintained." The resignations happened not long after the Common's Speaker Michael Martin on 26 February 2008 had blocked calls by the Liberal Democrats for an "in or out" referendum on Britain's EU membership. The Speaker's authority was called into question when, led by Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrats marched out of the House of Commons, calling the Speaker's decision a constitutional "outrage". Just moments before, frontbench foreign affairs spokesman for the party Ed Davey had been expelled from the chamber by the Speaker's deputy Sir Michael Lord for further challenging the ruling. In November 2008 Clegg suffered more allegations of difficulties with the front bench following an article in the Daily Mirror which reported that Clegg had criticised senior members of his front bench whilst on a plane journey. He attempted to play down the report saying to the BBC's Politics Show that "a lot of it is, frankly, fiction".

Attitudes to other parties

In the Commons Clegg initially concentrated most of his fire on Labour and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, but in the autumn of 2009 began also focusing on Conservative leader David Cameron and the Conservatives. Clegg rejected an appeal from Cameron for their two parties to work together. Clegg argued that the Conservatives were totally different from his party, and that the Lib Dems were the true "progressives" in UK politics. At the 2009 party conference in Bournemouth he accused the Conservatives of "simply believing it is their turn" and claimed that come the election the "choice before people is the choice between fake, phoney change from David Cameron's Conservatives, and real change the Liberal Democrats offer".

Parliamentary expenses

Clegg became the first party Leader in modern political history to call for a Speaker to resign following his handling of the expenses scandal, describing Michael Martin, the Speaker at the time, as a defender of the status quo and obstacle to the reform of Parliament.

In response to revelations about MPs' expenses, Clegg set out his plans for reform of Parliament in The Guardian. Speaking about the plans, he said: "let us bar the gates of Westminster and stop MPs leaving for their summer holidays until this crisis has been sorted out, and every nook and cranny of our political system has been reformed." He argued for the "reinvention of British politics" within 100 days, calling for a commitment to accept the Kelly expenses report in full; the power to recall members suspended for misconduct; House of Lords reform; reform of party funding; fixed-term parliaments; enabling legislation for a referendum on AV+; and changes to House of Commons procedure to reduce executive power.

Shortly ahead of the election, Clegg was asked about his own expenses by Andrew Neil of the BBC. Clegg allegedly claimed the full amount permissible under the Additional Cost Allowance, including claims for food, gardening and redecorating his second home. The Telegraph also said Clegg claimed £80 for international call charges, a claim he said he would repay.

Perspective

Clegg's platform for the Liberal Democrats has been to modernise the party at the same time as maintaining its traditions of political and philosophical Liberalism. In 2011, he told a party conference that the Liberal Democrats were radical centrist in orientation:

Our opponents try to divide us with their outdated labels of left and right. But we are not on the left and we are not on the right. We have our own label: Liberal. We are liberals and we own the freehold to the centre ground of British politics. Our politics is the politics of the radical centre.

Policies

Since becoming Leader Clegg has called for more choice for patients on waiting lists in the National Health Service (NHS), giving them the option to go private and to be funded by the NHS if they wish; a substantial tax cut in order to "put more money back into the pockets of people", better action on the environment, the abandonment of Britain's Trident missile defence system, fixed-term parliaments; devolving more power to local councils; giving constituents the power to force a by-election if their MP was found responsible for serious wrongdoing and a slimming of government across the board. Clegg campaigned to cut spending on defence projects such as Eurofighter as well as the UK Trident programme. In terms of public spending Clegg, at the party's 2009 conference in Bournemouth, argued that there needed to be "savage" spending cuts and said politicians need to treat voters "like grown ups" whilst accusing the Labour and Conservative parties of indulging in "childish games" over the "c-word".

Gurkha campaign

On 29 April 2009 a motion in the House of Commons by the Liberal Democrats that all Gurkhas be offered an equal right of residence resulted in a defeat for the Government by 267 votes to 246. It was the only first day motion defeat for a government since 1978. On speaking about the result Clegg said "this is an immense victory [...] for the rights of Gurkhas who have been waiting so long for justice, a victory for Parliament, a victory for decency." He added that it was "the kind of thing people want this country to do". On 21 May 2009, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced that all Gurkha veterans who retired before 1997 with at least four years service would be allowed to settle in the UK. The actress and daughter of Gurkha corps major James Lumley, Joanna Lumley, who had highlighted the treatment of the Gurkhas and campaigned for their rights, commented: "This is the welcome we have always longed to give".

Deputy Prime Minister (2010–present)

Clegg became Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Lord President of the Council on 11 May 2010 through a coalition with the Conservative Party under Prime Minister David Cameron. He has also been made Minister for Constitutional and Political Reform, which was a key point for the Liberal Democrats during the creation of the coalition and it will be his responsibility to work on this.

The Coalition Agreement

The morning after the 2010 General Election presented the country with no one political party able to form a government that would command a majority in the House of Commons. In light of this reality the Conservative Leader David Cameron went public and gave a “big, open and comprehensive offer” to the Lib Dem Leader and said that he wanted to open up negotiations with the Liberal Democrats to form Britain's first coalition government since the second world war. Replying Clegg said that he had always maintained that the party with the most seats and the most votes should have the right to seek to govern. Speaking to the press he said “It seems this morning that it is the Conservative Party which has more votes and more seats – although not an absolute majority – which is why I now think that it is the Conservative Party which should seek to govern in the national interest." Following the announcement teams of negotiators from both parties formulated what would become the 'Coalition Agreement' which would form the basis of their partnership together. Gordon Brown's resignation on 11 May 2010 meant that Cameron was invited by the Queen to form a government and a coalition with the Liberal Democrats was agreed with Nick Clegg as the Deputy Prime Minister.

Plans for electoral reform

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

On 5 July 2010 Clegg unveiled plans to have fewer MPs and to hold a referendum on the voting system so that the next General Election would be contested under the Alternative Vote system. In a statement, he said UK democracy was "fractured", with some votes counting more than others. As part of the statement he also changed initial plans requiring the number of MPs needed to vote to dissolve Parliament from 55% to 66%. The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill was presented to parliament on 22 July 2010 for its first reading which if successful would see the date of the referendum on changing the voting system from the current 'first past the post' system to the Alternative Vote (AV) system set for 5 May 2011. The bill also introduced plans to reduce the number of MP's in the House of Commons from 650 to 600 something which the Labour party attacked as gerrymandering as in order to do this there would need to be boundary changes. Clegg told MPs: "Together, these proposals help correct the deep unfairness in the way we hold elections in this country. Under the current set-up, votes count more in some parts of the country than others, and millions feel that their votes don't count at all. Elections are won and lost in a small minority of seats. We have a fractured democracy, where some people's votes count and other people's votes don't count." On 22 July 2010 the question for the referendum on AV was published asking voters if they wish to "adopt the 'alternative vote' system instead of the current 'first past the post' system" for electing MPs". The question required a yes or no answer. The Act received Royal Assent on 16 February 2011. The result of the referendum was that the alternative vote proposal was defeated by a margin of 2:1.

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Clegg also confirmed that the government planned to introduce legislation for five-year fixed-term parliaments, with elections to be held on the first Thursday in May of the fifth year after the previous general election, starting with 7 May 2015. The corresponding bill was presented to parliament on 22 July 2010 and the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 received Royal Assent on 15 September 2011.

Prime Minister's Questions

On 21 July 2010, Clegg became the first Liberal Democrat Leader to answer for Prime Minister's Questions. He courted controversy during the exchange when at the despatch box he attacked the shadow justice secretary Jack Straw for the decision to invade Iraq saying "perhaps one day you could account for your role in the most disastrous decision of all, which is the illegal invasion of Iraq." Despite having long held views about the issue, the comment was controversial, as it did not reflect the policy of the government which was that the legality of the war in Iraq was currently being studied by the Iraq inquiry. Clegg next stepped in for Prime Minister's Questions on 8 September 2010 following the news that David Cameron's father had taken very ill. Standing in for the Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, Jack Straw challenged Clegg on the allegations of phone hacking against Downing Street's director of communications Andy Coulson. Responding, Clegg claimed that the allegations dating from Coulson's time at the News of the World were a matter for the police to investigate. On 10 November 2010, as David Cameron was making a trade visit to China, Clegg deputised for the third time, meeting Harriet Harman across the despatch box. On a day that coincided with violent student protests against tuition fees in London, the Labour deputy leader chose the same subject to quiz Clegg, accusing him of a U-turn on pledges made before the election. Responding, Clegg accused Harman of trying to re-position the Labour Party as the party of students when the party had previously campaigned against fees only to end up introducing them.

Tuition fees

On 12 October 2010, a review by Lord Browne into future university funding set up by the previous Labour government was announced and its findings supported by Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary. The issue of student financing had been considered one of the flagship policies of the Liberal Democrats with all of the party's MPs, including Nick Clegg, signing the Vote for Students pledge to oppose any increase in student tuition fees prior to the election. The Browne Review however recommended that the present cap on student fees be lifted, potentially paving the way for universities to charge much higher fees in the future. Although as part of the coalition agreement the Lib Dems had gained the right to abstain on any vote relating to the increase of tuition fees, a number of the party's MPs, including former Leader Sir Menzies Campbell, said that they would have to oppose any potential rise. Clegg himself said that he would "understand" if any of his MPs felt that they could not back the review but urged them to look at all the facts before making up their minds. Expecting a rebellion, Clegg also wrote to his MPs saying that he had "struggled endlessly" with the issue and said that departing from the pledge he had made prior to the election would be "one of the most difficult decisions of my political career". Defending recommendations of the review, Clegg said that poorer students would pay less and wealthier students would pay more. He also announced that the income level at which students needed to earn before beginning to pay off their student loan would rise from £15,000 to £21,000. On 24 October 2010 Clegg told the BBC's Andrew Marr that despite the recommendations of the Browne review, the government was still considering its response. He told Marr that the government wanted to take the "best" from Browne in order to build a system that was fairer to poorer students but which would also give universities the funding boost they would need. During the interview Clegg also said that he regretted his not being able to keep his pre-election policy to scrap tuition fees but claimed that this was a result of the financial situation the country had found itself in. When pressed he also intimated that some form of cap on tuition fees would remain despite the recommendations of the report, which said that universities should be able to set their own fees. Finally, on 19 September 2012 Clegg admitted breaking the election pledge and apologised for having "made a promise we weren’t absolutely sure we could deliver". The apology was ridiculed in a song.

Student protests

On 10 November 2010 students staged a series of marches to demonstrate against the proposed increase in the upper limit of what is it possible for a university to charge for tuition fees. The demonstrations in London turned sour after a group of protesters attacked the Conservative party headquarters, smashing windows and eventually getting onto the roof. The National Union of Students, who had staged the protests, condemned the violence as "despicable" with union president Aaron Porter saying "this was not part of our plan". Speaking about the protests Nick Clegg, who had come under particular attack from the students during the demonstrations, said that the violence had "been generated by a very small number of people who had behaved utterly unacceptably". He also said that he "regretted" signing a pledge to vote against tuition fees increase before the election and said "in politics just as in life, you sometimes discover there are things that you wanted to do that you are not able to do.... We have had to forge a different policy because of the compromises of coalition, because of the financial situation.... But I hope that when people look at the details of what we are doing, they will see it is really, and it lowers the burden on the vast majority of students". On 24 November 2010 further protests from students took place with many students walking out of lessons to join the demonstration. Although the violence was not on the scale of the previous protest there were still 32 arrests with 17 people injured. Protesters in London had this time intended to demonstrate outside the Liberal Democrat headquarters with students once again accusing the party's Leaders of promising to vote against any increase in fee rises. Speaking on Radio 2 Clegg said "I hate in politics, as in life, to make promises that you then find you can't keep. We made a promise we can't deliver—we didn't win the election outright and there are compromises in coalition". Universities minister David Willetts meanwhile said that the students seemed not to have understood the proposal on tuition fees saying "young people will be provided with the funds they need to meet whatever charges universities levy".

Fairness premium

On 14 October 2010 Clegg delivered a speech at a school in Chesterfield, at which he announced the governments intention to spend £7 billion on a 'fairness premium' designed to see extra support going to the poorest pupils over the course of the parliament. Clegg claimed that the funds for the scheme would be "additional" to the current education budget and this view was backed up by a Number 10 aide who when interviewed by The Guardian said "the money for this will come from outside the education budget. We're not just rearranging furniture – this is real new money from elsewhere in Whitehall." The package announced would provide 15 hours a week free nursery education for the poorest two-year olds and a 'pupil premium' which would be given to schools to help those pupils eligible for free school meals worth £2.5 billion a year. The announcement by Clegg ensured that two elements of the government's ' Coalition Agreement' had been fulfilled, that of the promise to support free nursery care to pre-school children and that of funding a 'significant premium for disadvantaged pupils from outside the schools budget by reductions in spending elsewhere'. For Clegg the announcement was an important one politically coming two days after the publication of the Browne Review into the future of university funding which signalled the reversal of the long cherished Liberal Democrat policy of opposing any increase in tuition fees. The pupil premium announcement was important as it formed one of the four key 'priorities' on which the party had fought the last election. On 20 October the plans for the 'fairness premium' were introduced by the Treasury as part of the spending review which said that the money would be introduced over the period of the review which "will support the poorest in the early years and at every stage of their education".

Bank shares

In June 2011 Clegg proposed that more than 46 million people would be handed shares in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group under the “people’s bank” plan. The plan proposes that ordinary voters would be able to profit from any increase in the value of their shares once the Treasury has recouped taxpayers’ money used for the bail-out – an offer that could eventually be worth up to £1,000 to householders. Clegg said that it was “psychologically immensely important” for people to be given a stake in the banks in the wake of the financial crisis. “Their money has been used to the tune of billions and billions and billions to keep the British banking system on a life-support system,” he said. The taxpayer owns 84 per cent of RBS and 43 per cent of Lloyds after the Government spent £65.8 billion buying shares at the height of the financial crisis. The share price of both banks has fallen sharply since the bail-out. However, aides close to David Cameron and George Osborne warned that the Liberal Democrat scheme could cost £250 million to establish and would prove an “administrative nightmare”. However Stephen Williams said "We are absolutely convinced it (standard privatisation) would not be cheaper, we are absolutely convinced of that." A Downing Street spokesman said that the Liberal Democrat plan was “an option”. “The Treasury has said it is going to look at all the options and this will be one of those options,” the spokesman said. “We will be driven by making sure that we deliver the best value for the taxpayer.” The Treasury also played down the likelihood of the proposal becoming reality. A source said Mr Osborne was “happy to listen to ideas” but the “issue doesn’t currently arise”.

House of Lords reform

In August 2012 after reform of the House of Lords was abandoned, Clegg said the Conservatives have defied the Coalition agreement by trying to “pick and choose” which items of Government policy they support. The row marks one of the most serious crises for the Coalition since the 2010 general election. Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, said he was “very disappointed”, describing the decision as a “great shame”. Clegg said that favoured by the Conservatives to make sure the Coalition is a fair and equal partnership. “My party has held to that [Coalition] contract even when it meant voting for things that we found difficult,” he said. “But the Conservative party is not honouring the commitment to Lords reform and, as a result, part of our contract has now been broken.” Mr Clegg also revealed the Conservatives rejected his suggestion of a "last ditch" compromise to save both policies. “Clearly I cannot permit a situation where Conservative rebels can pick and choose the parts of the contract they like, while Liberal Democrat MPs are bound to the entire agreement," he said.

In September 2012 Clegg formally announced that he was “regrettably” withdrawing proposals to reform the Lords in the face of overwhelming opposition from Conservative MPs. He signalled he would exact his revenge by refusing to sack any Liberal Democrat minister who voted against changes to MPs’ boundaries – which is Government policy – in retaliation over the Lords reform débâcle. Traditionally party leaders are offered peerages when they leave the House of Commons. When asked by Labour MP Dennis Skinner if he would take a seat in the Lords, he said: “No”, adding: “I personally will not take a seat in an unreformed House of Lords. It just sticks in the throat.”

Electoral performance and standing in the polls

Standing in the polls

Since Clegg became Leader, the polls have been mixed, though the Liberal Democrats occasionally poll above 20 points averaging around 19%. In May 2009, the party overtook Labour in an opinion poll (25% vs 22%) for the first time since the days of its predecessor, the SDP–Liberal Alliance, in 1987. Clegg thus became the first Liberal Democrat Leader to out-poll Labour in an opinion poll. After Clegg's performance in the first of three general election debates on 15 April 2010, there was an unprecedented surge of media attention and support for the Liberal Democrats in opinion polls. ComRes reported the Liberal Democrats polled 24% on the day, and on 20 April in a YouGov poll, the Liberal Democrats were on 34%, 1-point above the Conservatives, with Labour in third place on 28%. Following the formation of the coalition support for the Liberal Democrats has fallen. A poll on 8 December 2010, the eve of a House of Commons vote on changes in the funding of higher education, an opinion poll conducted by YouGov recorded voting intention figures of Conservatives 41%, Labour 41%, Other Parties 11% and Liberal Democrats 8%, the lowest level of support recorded for the Liberal Democrats in any opinion poll since September 1990.

Parliamentary by-elections (2008 to 2010)

Five parliamentary by-elections were held during Clegg's leadership prior to the 2010 General Election. At Crewe and Nantwich the party's share of the vote decreased by 4%. In the subsequent Henley by-election the party achieved a 1.8% increase in their vote. At the Norwich North by-election the party came third with a 2.2% fall in their vote share. The two Scottish by-elections, Glenrothes and Glasgow East, saw decreases in the Liberal Democrat vote, 8% and 10% respectively.

2008 and 2009 local elections

The local election results for the Liberal Democrats during the same period have been mixed. In the 2008 Local Elections the Liberal Democrats took second place with 25% of the vote making a net gain of 34 councillors and took control of Sheffield City Council, but their share of the vote was down 1%. The next year the Liberal Democrats gained Bristol but lost both Somerset and Devon producing a net loss of councils and a net loss of one councillor. The party however did increase its share of the vote by 3% to 28% beating the Labour Party into third place. In the European Parliament elections held on the same day, the Liberal Democrats gained a seat but had a slight decrease in their share of the vote, staying in 4th place compared to the previous European elections, behind the two main parties and UKIP.

2008 London elections

In the 2008 London Assembly elections the Liberal Democrats were the only one of the three main parties to see a decrease in their share of the vote, and in the mayoral election the Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick came third again with a decreased share of the vote.

2010 general election

At the 2010 general election, the Liberal Democrats won 23% of the vote, an improvement of 1%, however they only won 57 seats, 5 fewer than in 2005. No political party had an overall majority, resulting in the nation's first hung parliament since February 1974. Talks between David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, and Clegg led to an agreed Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition, enabling the Queen to invite Cameron to form a government.

Parliamentary by-elections (2010 onwards)

Since the 2010 General Election, Clegg's Liberal Democrats have contested 13 by-elections in Great Britain (as of 2 March 2013). The party scored their first by-election win of Clegg's leadership at Easleigh in 2013, with Mike Thornton holding the seat for the Liberal Democrats, despite a 19% swing away from the party. Clegg described the result as an election in which Liberal Democrats "overcame the odds with a stunning victory."

Earlier by-elections in the parliament had proven less successful. They failed to win Oldham East and Saddleworth in January 2011, after they had successfully petitioned to overturn the General Election result. They polled 32% of the vote, a small increase on 2010, but lost out to Labour whose vote was up by 10 percentage points. The Liberal Democrats also came second at Leicester South (which they had held between 2004 and 2005) in May 2011 with 23% (down 4% on 2010), and at Manchester Central in November 2012 where they polled 9% (down 17%).

In the remaining nine contests, Liberal Democrats have finished no higher than third place (and in Rotherham finished in an unprecedented 8th position, with just 451 votes, or 2% of the total). In every by-election except Oldham East and Saddleworth their vote has fallen, with decreases of over 10% recorded at eight of the contests. In six of the 13 by-elections, the party have lost their deposit after failing to poll 5% of the vote - an unusually high number of such lost deposits for a major party.

2011 local, Scottish and Welsh elections

A year following the formation of the Coalition Clegg's Liberal Democrats faced poor results in the local elections. In Scotland the party lost all its mainland constituency seats, holding only the Shetland and Orkney islands. Their constituency vote share also fell from 16% to just 8% In the Welsh elections the party held just one of its 3 constituency seats, that of Welsh Leader Kirsty Williams, but gained a regional seat. In the English local elections, the Lib Dems lost over 700 councillors, and slumped from 25% to 17% in the share of the local council vote, also losing control of Sheffield City Council with the LibDems dropping to the lowest number of councillors in more than 20 years.

In the AV referendum, the Yes vote, supported by the Liberal Democrats, was defeated by 67.9% to 32.1%. In the face of the election results, Clegg told the BBC that Liberal Democrats must "get up, dust ourselves down and move on".

2012 local and London elections

Local elections were held in May 2012 to 185 local authorities in Great Britain, including all 32 councils in Scotland and 21 out of 22 in Wales.

Results again proved poor for the Liberal Democrats, as they won 431 seats in total, a loss of over 300 on the pre-election position. They also lost overall control of one council ( Cambridge, though the Liberal Democrats hold 21 out of 42 seats, so they exercise control with the mayor's casting vote). They retained control of the other six councils they were defending in England. Despite the losses, the Liberal Democrat vote share saw a modest increase compared to 2011.

Elections were also held for the Mayoralties of Salford and Liverpool. Liberal Democrat candidates polled 5% and 6% respectively, with Labour winning both contests.

In London, elections were held to the London Assembly and Mayoralty. The Liberal Democrats again selected Brian Paddick as their Mayoral candidate. He polled just 4% of the vote (down from 10% in 2008), and finished fourth behind the Green Party. In the Assembly, the Liberal Democrats also finished behind the Greens across London, and failed to win any of the individual constituency seats. They polled 7% of the vote on the London-wide list (which elects "top-up" candidates to the assembly under a form of proportional representation), which represented a decline of 5% on the previous contest. This meant that the party lost one seat, and was reduced to just two assembly seats, their smallest representation since the formation of the assembly in 2000.

In the aftermath of the results, Clegg again faced calls to quit as leader, with former MP Lembit Opik suggesting that Clegg retain his Cabinet position while relinquishing leadership of the party, saying "My empirical view is that we would have done better with a different leader".

2012 Police and Crime Commissioner elections

As part of the Coalition Agreement, directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners were introduced to replace Police Authorities. Elections to the new posts took place in November 2012. Liberal Democrats contested 24 of the 41 police force areas, and failed to win any of the contests (and in fact never progressed to the second round of the two-stage count in any of the elections they fought). Their best performance was in Cumbria, where they polled 22%, while their worst was Surrey where the took just 6% of the vote.

Despite not winning any contests under their official party label, one Liberal Democrat, Winston Roddick was elected as Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales having stood as an Independent. Roddick claimed that he had never hidden his party membership and that his campaign was "financed by himself with no donations or backing from any political party and he was an independent candidate in every sense of the word". His campaign also dismissed as "sour grapes" claims from the Labour Party that "the only way in which the Lib Dems thought they could win the election was by presenting themselves as independent."

Personal life

In 2000 Clegg married Miriam González Durántez, from Valladolid, Spain. They have three sons: Antonio, Alberto and Miguel, who are being brought up bilingually in Spanish and English. He has said that "The most important things in my life are my three young children: I’m besotted by them". His wife is a Roman Catholic and they are bringing up their children as Catholics; nevertheless, Clegg has stated that he does not believe in God. On 16 September 2010 during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom, Clegg attended the State reception in the grounds of Holyrood Palace and was introduced to the Pope by Queen Elizabeth II.

Clegg lives close to the Peak District and often walks with his wife near Stanage Edge, which he describes as "one of the most romantic places in the world". He also has a house in Parkfields, a street in Putney, South West London. Downing Street has announced that Clegg and the Foreign Secretary William Hague will share use of Chevening, which is typically the official country residence of the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom. When he appeared on Desert Island Discs in October 2010, his choice of discs included Johnny Cash, Prince and Radiohead and his luxury was a "stash of cigarettes". In an interview in April 2011 Clegg stated he dealt with the pressures of political office by reading novels late at night and he "cries regularly to music". Clegg's wealth is estimated at £1.9 million.

Styles

• Nick Clegg MEP (1999–2004)
• Nick Clegg MP (2005–2008)
• The Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP (2008–present)