Nick Clegg has shrugged off rumours he intends to step down after the 2015 election, saying he intends to remain leader of the Liberal Democrats "well beyond one term."
Speaking the day after he delivered a rallying cry to his party at the Liberal Democrat conference, saying the were punching above their weight, the Deputy Prime Minister also hinted he was prepared to compromise on the 50p tax rate.
While Clegg said he did not think it was "morally" right to abolish the tax rate on higher earners, he said it could be replaced by another tax on the rich if it was proven not to raise revenue.
“If we discover that the 50p rate just hasn’t raised the money from the very wealthiest that it was supposed to then I of course think we should look at other ways in which the wealthiest pay the amounted that we’d expected through the 50p rate.
“This is a debate by the way that isn’t just taking place in Westminster and between political parties in Britain... across the developed world everyone accepts, and I passionately believe, that when a lot of people are suffering – a lot of people on ordinary incomes are really finding it difficult to do the weekly shop, to pay these hugely inflated heating bills this winter, it simply would be incomprehensible to them, whatever the rate rises, to suddenly lower the tax burden on the very wealthy", he told the BBC's Andrew Marr show.
He also dismissed calls to change course, saying abandoning plans for deficit reduction would only cause more economic tumrmoil.