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'We stand up to vested interests,' Clegg seeks to reassure party

 

Andrew Grice
Wednesday 21 September 2011 10:00 BST
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Nick Clegg will turn his fire on the Conservatives and Labour today as he positions the Liberal Democrats as the only party willing to stand up to Britain's "vested interests".

In his closing speech to the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham, the Deputy Prime Minister will declare that his personal passion is to ensure "a fair start for every child". But he will risk causing strains inside the Coalition by suggesting that the Tories are an obstacle to his crusade to boost social mobility.

Mr Clegg will tell his party: "In our long, proud liberal history, we have never served the media moguls, the union barons or the bankers. We do not serve vested interests. We are in nobody's pocket. That's why we speak up, first and loudest, when the Establishment lets the people down."

He will argue that, in the last three years, Britain's "establishment institutions" have been exposed – with the City of London shattered by bankers' greed, the media corrupted by phone hacking and Parliament shamed by the expenses scandal.

Claiming the odds are stacked against too many of Britain's children, Mr Clegg will say they face a "deep injustice, when birth is destiny". He will announce a £50m scheme to set up summer schools for 100,000 disadvantaged children.

In another sign of tension over the Coalition's response to the riots, Lord McNally, the Liberal Democrat Justice minister, revealed Downing Street was pressing for new offences to be added to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill. He told a fringe meeting he was "having to fend off" No 10's desire to insert new offences and stricter sentences into the Bill.

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