In his speech at the National Liberal Club, Mr Clegg said of the cuts: “Some Conservative voters might even both demand it and like it. If you are a Liberal Democrat voter, you don’t like it. I don’t like it. I didn’t come into politics to kind of announce great cuts and savings. You do it out of necessity.” Mr Clegg again attempted to draw comparisons with the way the Conservatives ruled under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. He claimed he had acted as a brake on the true instincts of this generation of Conservatives.