Nick Clegg says his biggest mistake as leader was sitting next David Cameron at PMQs

The former DPM did not nominate any particular policies

The Liberal Democrat leader was seen as close to David Cameron (Getty)

Nick Clegg has said his “biggest mistake” during the 2010 Coalition government was sitting next to David Cameron at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Asked what he would have done differently in office, the former deputy prime minister declined to nominate any of his party’s policies.

Instead, Mr Clegg focused on the Liberal Democrats’ approach to communicating and explaining what they had done.

“The optics of politics made it almost impossible for people to understand what Liberal Democrats did in the Coalition,” he told the BBC’s Newsnight programme.

“Sitting mute next to David Cameron at Prime Minister’s Questions every week was a sort of terrible encapsulation of what our critics said about us, that we were somehow just sort of passengers in the Government when in fact we were active architects rather than observers of the Government.

“And maybe my biggest mistake was sitting where I did during Prime Minister’s Questions and I should have sat somewhere else.”

The popularity of the Liberal Democrats sank at the end of 2010 after they reneged on a signed pledge to vote against any increase in university tuition fees.

Mr Clegg became leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2007. At the 2010 election he won 57 seats, down from 62 at the 2005 election.

In 2015, after five years of Mr Clegg's decision to form a coalition government with the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats were reduced to a rump of eight MPs.

Mr Clegg narrowly retained his Sheffield Hallam seat despite most of his colleagues losing theirs.

He stepped down as leader after the result became clear, and has been succeeded by Tim Farron.