British Election: Conservatives do not represent UK: Clegg

The Conservatives are no longer a party for the whole of the UK and have “basically mutated into an English party chasing Ukip votes in southern England”, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has claimed.

The Liberal Democrat leader criticised the party he had been in coalition with, arguing that David Cameron has “given up even pretending to seek a mandate as prime minister for the whole of the United Kingdom”.

The Conservative leader has said he will try to form a government if his party wins just one more seat than Labour in today’s General Election. However, with the Tories uncertain to see off the challenge of the SNP in the one Scottish constituency they won in 2010, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said the next government must represent all of the UK and cannot “ignore” Scottish voices if it is to be considered legitimate.

As well as accusing the Conservatives of having effectively given up on Scotland, Mr Clegg hit out at Ms Sturgeon’s party, claiming a large block of SNP MPs at Westminster would seek to use “every smidgeon of grievance that they can muster in the next parliament to mount the case for a second referendum”.