[ applause ] and mr. Clegg the first question comes from darren metcalfe, please. Darren metcalfe. Nick. Hi, darren. How are you . Your promise on Student Loans has destroyed your reputation. Why would we ever believe anything else you say . [ applause ] nice easy way to start. Look, firstly, i got it wrong. I said sorry. Musically, no less. When you make a mistake in politics just as in life in politics just as in life sometimes you cant do exactly what you want. I was absolutely between a rock and a hard place five years ago on that particular policy. Secondly, i hope you can at least give me credit for the many, many other things that i have actually put into practice, whether its taking lots of people on low pay out of paying any income tax. The biggest expansion of apprenticeships this countrys ever seen. The biggest reform of our Pension System in a generation. More money into schools to help with the education of disadvantaged children. More childcare. Shared parental leave. Healthy lunches for little kids at primary school. The list goes on. I accept for some people, and you may be one of them for whom that one thing you cant forgive, you cant forget why did you vote for it and not just abstain . Because it was such a key thing. You had all your candidates going around to these things. Why didnt you abstain when it came to the vote . Rather than vote in favor. Thats the thing that upset people. Well, i mean, what happened as you may remember was the previous government, the Labour Government introduced fees and then increased them. When we came into government there, was no money left. David camerons just been waving around the letter which provided to the liberal democrat chief secretary of the treasury at the time saying there was no money left. And both the larger parties as they i think would admit if you asked them about it wanted fees to go up very considerably. The report commissioned at the time into all this said there should be no limit at all. In a sense what we did is get the fairest deal we could in those circumstances. And thankfully youve now got more young people at university than ever before. As i said earlier my experience is some people will say i cant forget that. I hope there are plenty of other fairminded folk who will accept that nonetheless there are many many, many other good policies that i did put into practice. Anybody want to come in on this . You, sir in the middle. Yes, you in the center. Policy of increasing tuition fees, essentially robbing from the rich youre taking money away from future generations to go to university because the economys going bust by people not repaying their fees, not getting enough money to be able to make the threshold. And the policies are completely defunct. No, i dont agree with that. Under the old system we inherited if you Left University you had to stop repaying the moment you earned 15,000 pounds. Now you dont pay back if you earn 16 17, 18, 19 20 00 you only start paying back when you earn thats precisely my point. No. Well, youre right some people say its not generous enough. Youre saying its too generous. Youre right to say that no one needs to pay up front. Thousands of students under the old system who used to have to pay up front or ask their parents to do so. And crucially if you cant pay it off during your working life it gets paid off for you. So in a sense its a much, much more fair system. Its not the system i would have liked. But its a much, much more fair system than people alleged at the time it was introduced. The question was about trust. You, sir, in the blue pullover there with the tie. Yes. Second row from the back. Hi mr. Clark. The public suggests did you say Prime Minister clegg . Mr. Clegg. I thought you said Prime Minister clegg for a moment. The public says they cant forgive that one thing. In hindsight would you go into coalition in 2010 again . Yes, absolutely. The more i look back the more i think its a brave decision for the liberal democrats. Its come at a political cost. But its clear in my mind we could have been greece. Our deficit was almost as big as greeces. Our banking crisis was a whole lot worse. And i certainly wouldnt have wanted on my conscience higher Interest Rates higher unemployment higher youth unemployment, which im absolutely sure would have happened if we hadnt stepped up to the plate to create a stable government without which an economic recovery is not possible. And my great concern at the moment is that having got this far over five years, and 1,500 pounds off 8 million of the most vulnerable families. We can only assume that theyre looking at the kind of plans which they floated some years ago. Did you know about it when it happened . Yes but if theyre we didnt know. It only came out today. Thats what she means. Something you discovered and worked on in coalition which has been kept secret until today. Its a way of attacking the tory party. Last summer George Osborne made a speech at the conservative Party Conference and he said that the conservative party in a radical departure from the sensible way which weve adopted over the last five years to balance the books, are not going to ask the very wealthy in society to pay a single extra penny in tax to balance the books and instead only the workingage poor are going to pick up the tab for the mistakes made by the bankers. I think thats unfair. Theyve said they want to take the equivalent of 1,500 pounds off the 8 million poorest families in this country. They wont tell you how theyll do that. 12 billion pounds is about exactly as much as we spend as a country on disability living allowance. Are they going to scrap disability allowance . Are they going to scrap it . Its about the same as we spend on employment support allowance. Are they going to scrap that . I think the point that danny was making quite rightly is weve had five weeks of this election campaign. The conservators have a very unfair plan to balance the books which departs from what weve done in coalition. And i think we are entitled to say what are you going to do . Who are you going to hurt . Whos going to bear the pain . The woman back there. I dont think voters want to hear reasons why not to vote for another party. We want reasons why to vote for your party. Sure. [ applause ] thats fair. But i think also voters want to know what the choices are. And i think at the moment the fundamental choices are a conservative plan which ive just described which i think wants to ballot books, which we must do, but wants to do so unfairly, and a labour plan which still wont give you any time table or any detail or any plan about how to balance the books in the first place. I think one of the most important things, whoever is in government, in whatever combination and by the way, unlike ed miliband and David Cameron im not pretending im going to be Prime Minister next thursday. I wish it were otherwise, but i doubt its an impending prospect. I think they know theyre not going to be Prime Minister. Theyre not coming clean with you. That theyre going to have to make compromises as well. All im saying is in the decisions about how we govern ourselves after next thursday when you cast your vote one of the most important questions is how do you finish the job of wiping the slate clean so that our kids and our grandkids dont continue to pay the price for our generations debts but you do so fairly. And thats why i think the centerground position from the liberal democrats makes more sense than excessive cuts or excessive borrowing. Somebodys got to be Prime Minister. Who are you going to make Prime Minister . Hang on. If you were in a position to decide. Heres the most unsurprising assertion of the evening. Either David Cameron or ed miliband are going to be Prime Minister. It may be no Prime Minister. It may be so badly mashed about by the election nobody can form a majority. Everybodys got to behave in a grownup responsible way even if they dont we heard ed miliband here say he wouldnt depend on the Scottish National party. Should i try to answer the question . Yes. David cam sxron ed miliband are going to walk into number 10 as Prime Minister. I dont think thats much in doubt. You have to decide which of those two. The real question is whos going to go in alongside them . Alex hammond . Is it going to be nigel farraj . Or is it going to be me and the liberal democrats . My great fear as i said earlier is if you have David Cameron to the tune of nigel farraj or the swiveleyed brigade on the right wing of the conservative party or you have ed miliband basically the beck and call of alex hammond you lurch off to the right and the left which is not what we need as a country. You sir. [ applause ] then ill come to you. Thats all well and good. But youve just told us that in 2010 you had to make a very difficult decision on tuition fees. How do we know that you wont have to make a very difficult decision again around the things youre promising us tonight . And thats a totally fair challenge. And thats why ive been much clearer and crisper, i hope maybe you didnt hear it about the red lines without which the liberal democrats simply wont go into any Coalition Government. For instance, education spending, you just heard ed miliband say that the labour party wants into crease education spending to keep up with prices. What he didnt tell you is that there were going to be 460,000 new youngsters going into Education System. So you need to increase spending to help them as well. The conservatives want to do the referring, keep up with increased pupil number but not with prices. Both amount to a cut, a multibillionpound cut to the money that goes into our nurseries, our schools and our colleges. I cannot be more clean than you with you. The liberal democrats will not go into any coalition, any government. We wont sign a Coalition Agreement unless if either of those parties insist on those cuts to our Education System because i think that really is shortchanging the little children of today, who should be given just as much you mean you want more than just a standstill because youve said there are, what is it 400,000 people coming into education. You want a big expansion of the education budget. I think the increase of the budget needs to keep pace not only with prices but also with the increase of the numbers. Do you have any idea what the cost of that would be . It would be another 5 billion pounds by the final year of the next parliament. And you can find that . Yes. You think. You, sir. I just wondered if youve got plans for a new job after next week when you become unemployed and it becomes irrelevant. Charming. No i dont. All right. David jackson. Question from david jackson, please. Nick. How do you feel about the huge increase of people driven to use food banks many of them in work poverty or falling foul of benefit sanctions . Well, i think like everybody here i dont its very its very distressing to see an increasing number of people move into food banks. And thats why every day that ive been in government over the last five years as we had to clean up this unholy mess we inherited, this massive black hole in our public finances, a broken Banking System the biggest heart attack in our economy in a generation ive always tried to take decisions where we spread the burden as fairly as possible. So for instance i have resisted time and time again much, much deeper cuts to benefits to the help given to the most vulnerable, those who fall on hard times as advocated by conservatives in government. When people get back into work particularly those on low pay, id be very anxious to make sure they keep more of the money they earn. When i came into government, everybody here, all of us would start paying income tax the moment you earned 6,400 pounds. On the front page of your wellthumbed copy of the 2010 liberal democrat manifesto you would have seen an absolute leading commitment which we did stick to which was that we would raise the point at which you pay income tax. Sow pay no income tax on the first 10,600 pounds you earn. That has actually meant 3 Million People over 3 Million People on low pay pay no income tax for the first time ever. The final thing i would say is about the benefit sanctions which you mentioned. I do i have become persuaded listening to the trestle trust and others who provided evidence about the reasons people are using food banks. I have become persuaded that we need in effect a kind of yellow card system that some of the sanctions that applied to people who dont meet the conditions of their benefits shouldnt be imposed quite as harshly and automatically as they are. And that is a change i would want to introduce in the next parliament. [ applause ] good evening, nick. I do think youre an honorable man, but what youre forgetting is that all these sanctions are in place because you put cameron into number 10. You didnt have a majority. So there would be no work program, nowhere near as many benefit sanctions and you could have made a different choice, and thats why people dont trust you. People like me that voted for you in the election did not vote liberal democrat to put cameron in number 10. Hang on. Just explain what did you expect . What did you want . Im sorry. What did you want . My preference would have been for him to have continued negotiations with labour, which i think a lot of liberal democrat natural voters would vote for labour that protested. Qi just make theres just the little matter of democracy. You could have chosen. No. You did choose. No. Accept responsibility. You did choose. That was your choice. Thats not actually the case. After the last election no one won a majority. Whether you and i like it or not, the liberal democrats did not win. Im not Prime Minister. I lead a party of 8 of mps in the house of commons. And it was the conservatives that won the most votes and seats. Youre slagging each other off. David cameron said you were a great team and now youre slagging each other off. And he keeps talking about darkened rooms, ed miliband. If either of them thinks theyre going to win a majority they need to go lie down in that darkened room. The point [ applause ] the point id like to make to you and to everybody is this, is that you are the boss. Right . We are your servants. You give us through the way you vote next thursday our marching instructions. And last time the marching instructions were very, very clear. The only way we could create a stable government at a time of economic firestorm which could engulf this country, we could have been the next domino to fall after greece and portugal and spain was the conservatives its nothing like greece, our economy. And you know it. Our economy is nothing like greece. Comparing this country to the economy of greece. Youre not that stupid. No, i dont. With the greatest respect, please dont be complacent about the state of the british economy. Our banking crisis was considerably worse than greeces. Our deficit was just as bad what about our assets . If you want to see what happens where people dont step up to the plate, however controversial it is, to provide stable government, look at the 50 youth unemployment in many other European Countries where governments havent got to grips with the economic crisis. I will never apologize never apologize. Whatever the shortterm political effects. On the liberal democrats. For having stepped up to the plate in a very plucky and brave way to put the country before party. [ applause ] all right. I dont know whether the color of your pullover is yellow. It does Say Something does it . No. Your question. Good evening, mr. Clegg. You mentioned about democracy. Do i assume from that that when the phone rings on friday morning, next friday morning, that the first person you will speak to will be the person who has most seats . Yeah. I think the party that gets the biggest mandate from you, in other words, the party with the most votes and the most seats, even if they havent got a slam dunk result, has in a democracy the result the right forgive me, to make if you like the first move to reach out to other parties to assemble a government if they so choose. It may not work out. Other parties may not reciprocate. And then other arrangements might need to be arrived at. But i think in a democracy it just seems to me a pretty oldfashioned principle that the party thats got its nose ahead of the other parties because of the way you vote even if they havent got an outright majority, has got the mandate to try and put together a government. All right. Before we go into another question, does anybody else want to speak about food banks . Specifically. Which was the question we had. Taken point. No . All right. Lets go on to a question from grace davis please. Grace davis. Is Free Movement within the uk creating a problem in the eu creating a problem in the uk . Free movement in the eu, is it creating a problem in the uk . I think it did create a problem when Free Movement became kind of the same as the freedom to claim. I dont think the freedom to move is the same as the freedom to claim. So even though i am pro european, not because i think its perfect but i think it makes sense for an open economy to be part of the Worlds Largest marketplace even though i am pro european, i decided as deputy Prime Minister in this Coalition Government to break that link so that people couldnt arrive here from elsewhere in the European Union and claim benefits, no questions asked, on the first day they arrive. By the way, i would also point out it is a twoway street. There are roughly about as many brits living and working elsewhere in the European Union than there are europeans working in our country. Weve got to remember its also a freedom whi