Will Mr Clegg disagree publicly with Mr Cameron more often? Nick Clegg has told Liberal Democrats to “hold your nerve” as he prepares to face activists rattled by sinking poll ratings and public anger at cuts.
The Lib Dem leader is seeking to rally his troops as his party gathers for its spring conference in Sheffield.
He is expected to tell them: “Don’t be cowed by what people are saying about us. Stick to the course.”
Police are preparing for up to 10,000 people to take part in anti-government protests in Sheffield city centre.
South Yorkshire Police have spent an estimated £2m on a “ring of steel” around the conference centre and have said they are looking into one report there had been a threat to kidnap Mr Clegg.
But the deputy prime minister is also expected to face hostility from members of his own party, with a motion tabled attacking Project Merlin, the government’s deal with the banks to increase lending as “weak and hard to enforce”.
Activists are also expected to voice their concern at the government’s planned shake-up of the NHS.
Mr Clegg sought to play down talk of conflict with activists an eve-of-conference interview with the Independent.
“We were right to go into government – we are doing the right things in government”
Nick Clegg Lib Dem leader
“People want to build this up into the Gunfight at the OK Corral,” said Mr Clegg. “It is not like that at all.
“Most people accept we want to see the NHS become more democratic. I am very much in listening mode.”
Mr Clegg is nevertheless expected to use the weekend in Sheffield to reassert his party’s independence, amid fears it is losing its identity in its coalition with the Conservatives.
In his Independent interview, Mr Clegg suggested he would disagree publicly with prime minister David Cameron on more issues.
He said he had told Mr Cameron he was talking “complete bilge” when the prime minister defended first-past-the post voting in the Commons on Wednesday, but added: “We were very good humoured about it. We mutter to each other. We were just joking. We disagree on this one.”
The party will be handing out pocket-sized cards to Lib Dem members containing a list of things the party had achieved in government, including civil liberties reform, tax cuts for the lowest paid and the “pupil premium” to channel cash to schools in deprived areas.
Mr Clegg told the Independent: “We are in this for the long haul. We are going to keep our nerves. We are not going to flinch.
“We were right to go into government. We are doing the right things in government.”
He added: “People have to hold their nerve, not lurch from one thing to the next.”
The newspaper quotes Mr Clegg, in rehearsal for his big conference speech on Sunday, saying: “Keep your head up high. Be proud of what we are doing. Don’t be cowed by what people are saying about us. Stick to the course.”
Mr Clegg, who is MP for Sheffield Hallam, has also faced criticism over his U-turn on student tuition fees and the axing of a grant to Sheffield Forgemasters.
But his Parliamentary aide Norman Lamb said the party would not be “in hiding” and planned to get out on the doorstep in Sheffield.
Some activists fear the party faces a hammering at English local elections on 5 May, but Mr Lamb told reporters earlier this week that the “the mood of the party remains good”.
The latest YouGov opinion poll for the Sun has put the Lib Dems on just 9%, trailing well behind their Conservative coalition partners on 34% and Labour on 45%.
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