Clegg’s offer to voters: I’ll be the Tories’ heart and Labour’s brain

The Lib Dem manifesto launch was typically Liberal Democrat. Nick Clegg offered a robust defence of the coalition declaring simply that it ‘worked’. He argued that it had proved the superiority of multi-party government and said that in any future coalition the Lib Dems would be the Tories’ heart and Labour’s brain. This was a rather more pointed version of his refrain that the Liberal Democrats will be the Tories’ heart and Labour’s head.

But what Clegg wanted voters to think about today is who they want governing alongside Cameron and Miliband. His pitch was that neither party will win a majority so the question for voters is do you want Ukip, the SNP or the Lib Dems as their partners in government? It is a choice that is meant to make voters pick the Lib Dems.