The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Glyn Davies, Conservative member of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, welcomes the news that the UK will guarantee a £2bn deal under which China will invest in the Hinkley Point nuclear power station. He tells the World at One it's a "good deal".

But Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West, has concerns. He says the deal will lead to "dearer electricity".

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Asked about the evidence for allegations about the PM's student days - Isabel Oakeshott says the book is written "extremely carefully".

Brian Wheeler

The Lib Dems should target Richmond Park - Zac Goldsmith's seat - in readiness for a by-election if he becomes the Tory mayoral candidate, says Simon Hughes at a fringe meeting.

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Isabel Oakshott, former political editor of The Sunday Times and co-author of the unofficial Cameron biography Call Me Dave, says Lord Ashcroft was clear the book would not be published until after the general election and it would be "objective", adding that "we have fulfilled that task".

She says if it was just a revenge job - as some claim - they could have published it before the election which would've caused "far more damage" - or during the Conservative Party conference.

"By publishing at this point that will do the least possible damage," she adds, noting that the PM has already said he will not seek a third term.

Brian Wheeler

The Lib Dems could work with a Corbyn Labour Party on some issues such as health and housing, Baroness Williams tells a packed fringe meeting, urging the party not to be "tribalist".

Image source, press association

The Liberal Democrats say families should be able to take their children out of school in order to take advantage of cheaper holidays. They say the current policy - barring vacations in term-time - is "socially divisive" because poorer families can't afford the higher prices during school holidays.

The Lib Dems passed a motion at its conference, saying the government should give headteachers the discretion to grant up to 10 days absence a year.

Liberal Democrat spokesperson John Pugh said: "It's vitally important to offer more flexibility to schools and headteachers to help families who need to take a break together.”

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Nick Clegg says he can't remember blocking Lord Ashcroft getting any ministerial role in the coalition (David Cameron told Ashcroft that he had, according to his book). However the former Lib Dem leader says he does remember blocking the suggesting of Michael Howard - Lord Howard (pictured above on Newsnight) - from becoming the UK's EU commissioner. 

Image source, Getty Images

Far from retiring into the background now he is out of limelight, Nick Clegg has been wearing out some shoe leather in Bournemouth. He's doing several fringe meetings, has just received a standing ovation in the hall and has also been doing a host of media interviews. Here are some images from one of them.

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

With reference to Lord Ashcroft's book, serialised in the Daily Mail this morning, Nick Clegg said he didn’t recollect being asked permission to give Lord Ashcroft a senior job in government.

"I’m now used to Conservatives - they certainly did it for five years - using me as an alibi for awkward decisions that they had to face within their own party and I’m certain they fell into that category,” he said.

Clegg said it would be a "very retrograde step" if the Conservatives were to scrap free school meals for infant school children in England. 

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Nick Clegg has given a wide-ranging interview to the BBC's World at One in which he urges his former coalition partner, David Cameron, to start making the case for staying in the EU. 

Mr Clegg said: 

The former Lib Dem leader predicted that the result of the referendum "could very well be close” but said it was “better to be part of the club than to be isolated”.

Former Sun editor Kelvin McKenzie has been talking to the Daily Politics about the Ashcroft biography of David Cameron. He suggests that Isabel Oakeshott, the journalist who co-authored the book, approached him to ask him to put her in contact with Andy Coulson, the PM's former director of communications. He suggests that Mr Coulson refused to talk to her despite not being "well-disposed" towards the prime minister. Lord Ashcroft, he adds, is a "clever and engaging" man who felt he had been "done wrong" by the prime minister. The peer, he adds, was no fan of the coalition, thinking there was "not enough Toryism and too much liberalism". As for the PM, he says he did not want Lord Ashcroft's tax affairs to overshadow the business of the coalition.   

No-one can take the Lib Dems' achievements in office away from them, Nick Clegg says. He suggests that although it won't be easy and there will be setbacks along the way his party can be the "comeback kids" of British politics. The party is and will always be "the most resilient in British politics", he concludes. With that, he leaves the stage to another standing ovation. 

Making the case for the UK's membership of the EU, Mr Clegg warns about the UK becoming isolated and "drifting friendlessly in the mid-atlantic...isolated from our neighbours". He says the US has been clear that the UK will lose influence if it exits. He says the party "must strain every sinew to fight and win" the EU referenedum when it happens, saying it is "existential question" for Britain's future. He also urges new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to throw his weight behind the UK's membership claiming his equivocation in the past week has been "completely perplexing".

The Lib Dems should be reaching out to moderates in other parties, says Clegg. He argues that the "dead hand of Westminster tribalism" should not rule out co-operation across party lines. Co-operation should be a "virtue not a sin", he says, urging those who want to preserve the Union and to keep the UK in the EU to work together. 

Nick Clegg says he wants to get "something off his chest" about the party's oft-repeated claim to occupy the centre ground. He says he accepts criticism that the party made too much of it during the election campaign and it came to be seen as a tactical slogan rather than a "place of conviction and values". But he insists there is nothing "insipid" about "being seen as being compassionate rather than intolerant". A "big liberal hole" has opened up since May, he adds. "The centre ground is standing empty. That is our opportunity. That is where we belong."  

Nick Clegg now launches into a passionate attack on the Conservatives' record since May, claiming the government has tried to "bully the BBC, denigrate refugees and attack the unions". "You could not make it up," he says to loud applause in the hall, also attacking cuts to tax credits and environmental policies. 

The Lib Dems face a "new reality" even though the election result may not be fair," Nick Clegg continues. He says David Cameron and George Osborne have may qualities "some of them good, many of them bad". But above all, he suggests they are "lucky generals" who have had good fortune on the economy and the weaknesses of the opposition. "They cannot believe their luck", he claims, not to have a "coalition partner to keep them honest".