Pull out of coalition now, top Lib Dem warns Clegg

There was no clemency for Nick Clegg on Sky News this morning. Starlet journalist Clemency Burton-Hill, reviewing the papers, told viewers the deputy prime minister looked "raddled" in a Daily Mail photograph that showed him looking particularly lined and care-worn. The verdict came just minutes after Clegg himself had appeared on the channel to deny the latest batch of reports suggesting he's being airbrushed out of the Lib Dem local election campaign.

Clegg told Sky the Mail was "scraping the barrel" with its report suggesting that he was so "toxic" that even Lib Dems in his own home city of Sheffield had dropped his face from their leaflets in the May local elections.

"I believe we are doing what is necessary for the country," said Clegg from Manchester where he is launching a regional jobs initiative for the Con-Lib Coalition.

The latest wobble in the Lib Dem campaign bandwagon came after the leader of the Liberal Democrats in Liverpool called on Clegg to pull out of the coalition government.

Warren Bradley, council leader until last year's election, said he was "tired of defending the indefensible" and urged Clegg to act "before we disappear into the annals of history".

Bradley warned Clegg that long-serving Lib Dem councillors were set to lose their seats in the May 5 elections "not because of their record, but because of your record and the perception of what we as Liberal Democrats now are".

In a private email to Clegg, leaked to the Liverpool Echo, Bradley said: "Unfortunately the boil is about to come to a head and burst (probably on election night) when we lose some very well respected and experienced colleagues from Liverpool City Council."
 
Bradley said the Lib Dems needed to "reconsider what and who we are before we disappear into the annals of history as a political party who promised so much hope, yet failed because they wanted control and power". The party, he said, had deserted its followers.

Clegg brushed aside Bradley's e-mail saying he was "wrong". But there is no doubt that, out in the country, Labour are making deep inroads into the Liberal Democrat town hall strongholds ahead of election night on May 5 when 279 local councils are up for grabs. Even worse for Clegg, he stands a very good chance of losing the vote on the AV referendum the same day.

The 'Clegg Must Go' tumbrils are already rolling. The morning after the polls, no matter how much make-up he applies to his face, the calls for Clegg to go could become unstoppable. And if Clegg goes, what then happens to the coalition? As the Mole reported yesterday, the Tory grassroots hate the forced marriage with the Lib Dems. Are they heading for divorce on May 6? ·