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Liberal Democrats in Government had to fight hard to stop the Conservatives introducing regional pay which could have hit the pay of nurses and teachers, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has claimed.

The Lib Dem leader described a battle at the heart of the coalition to stop the roll-out of regional pay levels in the public sector.

It is feared that many people in Wales could see their pay slump if the policy was ever introduced. Workers in Wales have the lowest average gross weekly earnings in Great Britain at just £473.40, compared with £518 across the UK and £660.50 in London.

Mr Clegg said: “They pushed it very, very hard and I had to push very hard back to stop it... [The Conservatives] are quite keen on the idea of different rates of benefits, different rates of pay in different parts of the country.”

He warned: “I think it would do great damage to the public sector ethos if people who work in the NHS, work in social care [were] going to be shortchanged compared to your colleagues in other parts of the country. And that’s why we didn’t allow the Conservatives to do that during our time in Government...

“They pushed it very hard and were adamant for ages.”

Describing the role played by Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams, he said: “Kirsty in particular was quite rightly hopping mad at the Conservative party proposal for regional pay and in her inimitable style made it quite clear she felt very strongly – as to be fair we all did. The slightest scrutiny of it suggested this would be unfair.”

Conservative Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb is attempting to win cross-party consensus on a package of powers for the Assembly due to be announced by St David’s Day in the wake of the reports of the Silk Commission reports and the aftermath of the Scottish independence vote.

Mr Clegg suggested the proposals may not go as far as he would hope.

He said: “On devolution for Wales, I’m very proud we pressed so hard to get the referendum, to get Silk 1 pretty well delivered, and I would like to see as much of Silk 2 now delivered as well. As you now, we’re trying to make further announcements on a cross-party basis on St David’s Day.

“A lot of work has been done on that right now. Kirsty and the Welsh Liberal Democrats are probably at the forefront of arguing for the full Silk 2 package and beyond. But it’s an open secret for instance the Conservatives are very reluctant to see more meaningful devolution on policing.

“I will push it as far as I can as I always have done but, in the nature of the beast, we won’t perhaps probably deliver quite as much as I want but we’ll certainly deliver more devolution than has ever been delivered in many, many years.”

Adamant that his party will do “a lot, lot better than most of the pundits and soothsayers are presently predicting,” he said: “Do we have to campaign our hearts out? You bet.

“Are we going to knock on every door that we can? You bet.

“Are we going to deploy new information technologies in a way that we never have done before? You bet.

“Are we going to distribute more leaflets than we ever have before? Yes.

“It’s going to be a closely fought, ferociously fought electoral contest.”

When asked about his party’s chances of winning student votes in the wake of the tuition fees debacle, he said: “Clearly, to state the obvious, we’re not going to do as well amongst students as we did last time but my experience as someone who has a fair number of students in my own constituency is if you actually speak to students about the system that has been introduced they are the first to tell me it’s much, much fairer than all the critics predicted it would be.”