Nick Clegg to answer questions from political journalists every month

Nick Clegg has announced that he will step in and offer something David Cameron promised years ago but has not delivered. The Deputy Prime Minister says that he will make himself available every month to reply to questions from political journalists about any aspect of government policy.

It is part of a drive to make the Liberal Democrat leader more accessible, following the success of his weekly phone-in programmes on LBC radio.

At his briefing this morning, he will make introductory remarks in which he plans to say that last week’s statement form the Chancellor, George Osborne, setting out cuts in government spending, shows that the coalition is “proving remarkably durable.”

He will add: “Labour, on the other hand, are incapable of making a single decision. I think I preferred it when Labour stuck to their monastic vow of silence on the economy – when they tell you what they think it’s extraordinarily difficult to follow. The Labour party has gone from taking no position to taking every position