Nick Clegg has blamed the rise of the SNP - rather than his own leadership - for his party's devastating general election defeat, in an LBC interview.

The former Lib Dem leader said voters had "played safe" by backing the Tories to prevent a Labour/SNP government.

He said he would have quit as leader a year before polling day if he thought it would have made a difference.

And he had "no regrets" about coalition with the Tories, in his first interview since standing down as leader.

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Mr Clegg said he feared David Cameron was undoing much of what his party achieved in coalition and that the Conservative Party had also been "gobsmacked" by the election, which he said they had not expected to win.

The Lib Dem leader said his first reaction on seeing the exit poll predicting the near-wipe out of his party, was to reach for a cigarette for the first time in months.

'English heart'

His initial disbelief at the poll's predictions quickly turned to despair and a "grim realisation that this was going to be an absolutely terrible night".

He worried first about whether he would retain his own seat before realising he had to "take responsibility" and began to call close colleagues, such as Danny Alexander and David Laws, to discuss the results and how badly the pollsters had got it wrong.

He said it had been a "strange" election campaign and although the party had not remotely expected to do as badly as it did they felt the Conservative strategy of talking up the prospect of Labour/SNP government was having a big effect in England.

"Ten days before the election day all of us really felt a Labour government dancing to the tune of the SNP really chilled the English heart," he told presenter Nick Ferrari.

Asked about reports in The Guardian that he had considered quitting as leader a year earlier, after his party's disastrous results in local and European election results, he said he did not believe "changing personnel at the top of the party " would have changed the general election result.

The former deputy prime minister denied he had destroyed his party, which saw its number of MPs reduced from 56 to just eight, insisting it would bounce back.

But he said they had paid the price for "putting country before party" in 2010.

'Punitive'

Asked what the party had achieved in government, he said: "We had a strong and stable government, anchored in the centre ground for five years at a time of outright economic peril."

But he was concerned the Conservatives were now pursuing an "illiberal, punitive" approach to issues like child poverty and protecting the poor from welfare cuts.

He had been most proud of figures suggesting the "attainment gap" in schools was closing, with poorer pupils doing better, something he claimed was a direct result of Lib Dem policies such as "the pupil premium".

And the thing he most missed about being deputy prime minister was "making decisions" that would improve the country.

Asked a question suggested by former sparring partner Nigel Farage - if he regretted winning his Sheffield Hallam seat - Mr Clegg said he wanted to serve his constituents for the next five years and play an active role in the debate on Europe and other issues he cared about.

'Distraught'

But, as for his future, he said would "take it one Parliament at a time".

Mr Clegg had to be persuaded to carry on as Lib Dem leader a full 12 months before the general election, according to The Guardian.

But was talked in to staying on by Lord Ashdown and Tim Farron, who is now bidding to be the party's next leader.

Mr Farron told The Guardian that when he spoke to Mr Clegg after the 2014 local and European polls he found him "just distraught about everything" and "he felt personally every single loss".

"I just thought this could end up in a bloodbath and we're far better off sticking with the captain who has done nothing to deserve this," he said.