Nick Clegg: 'The Lib Dems Have No Future on the Left'
THE TELEGRAPH: Nick Clegg has said that there is no future for the Liberal Democrats as a left wing party.

The Deputy Prime Minister said he sympathised with voters who had turned to his party as an alternative to Labour and were unhappy that they had formed a coalition with the Conservatives.

But he risked alienating key supporters by dismissing those who see the Lib Dems as “a sort of left-wing conscience of the Labour Party”.

"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,” he said.

"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," he told the Independent. >>> Heidi Blake | Saturday, September 18, 2010

Nick Clegg: There Is No Future for Us as Left-wing Rivals to Labour
THE INDEPENDENT: As the Liberal Democrats' conference begins, their leader gives his party an uncompromising message

Nick Clegg has declared 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.

In an interview with The Independent on the eve of Liberal Democrat conference starting today, he promised his party it would reap the electoral rewards if it held its nerve about its slump in the opinion polls. >>> Andrew Grice, Political Editor | Saturday, September 18, 2010