• No 10 distances itself from deputy PM's stance on Iraq • Home Office forced to clarify child detention pledge

This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, was under pressure today after a series of gaffes in the House of Commons forced the government to issue clarifications on Iraq and immigration policy.

Downing Street distanced itself from Clegg's stance on the invasion of Iraq after the Liberal Democrat leader declared it "illegal" at prime minister's questions.

In a further blow to the deputy PM, the Home Office was forced to clarify remarks he made about the future of the Yarl's Wood detention centre.

The Lib Dem leader was taking PMQs for the first time in place of David Cameron, who is in Washington for talks with the US president, Barack Obama.

Clegg's comments on Iraq came during an exchange with Labour's shadow justice secretary, Jack Straw, who was Tony Blair's foreign secretary when the US-led offensive began.

"I'm happy to account for everything we are doing in this coalition government, which has brought together two parties, working in the national interest to sort out the mess that you left behind," Clegg said.

"Perhaps one day you could account for your role in the most disastrous decision of all, which is the illegal invasion of Iraq."

Like most Tory MPs, Cameron supported the US-led invasion in 2003 – which was opposed by the Lib Dems.

Downing Street insisted Clegg's remarks were not government policy, adding that the legality of the invasion was being studied by the Iraq war inquiry.

A spokeswoman said: "I do not believe the coalition government has a specific view on the legality of the Iraq war as such. The Iraq inquiry is looking at a range of issues, including the legal basis for going to war."

She said Clegg was expressing his "long-held personal view on the Iraq war".

Clegg also promised to fulfil the government's pledge to end child detention by closing the Yarl's Wood immigration centre in Bedfordshire.

The Home Office was later forced to clarify his remarks, saying that only the family wing would shut.

Clegg said it was a "moral outrage" that the previous Labour government had locked up 1,000 children "who were innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever".

He added: "I can confirm that the government will come forward shortly with an announcement about how we will deliver on our pledge to end child detention and to close the Yarl's Wood detention centre for good."

But a later statement from the Home Office said: "The new government has been clear in its commitment to end the detention of children and this includes those held in the family wing at Yarl's Wood.

"We are currently working to find an alternative that protects the welfare of children without undermining our immigration laws.

"Yarl's Wood family unit will be closed, but the centre will continue to function as an immigration removal facility for adults."

During the exchanges in the Commons, Straw seized on the findings of a Populus poll, commissioned by the Tory peer Lord Ashcroft. The poll, of 6,000 voters, found just 21% believed the Liberal Democrats were having a "significant" impact on the coalition's policies, while 51% said the party had "some" influence and 23% said it had virtually none.

Straw raised the issue as he urged Clegg to apologise after the government's case for cancelling an £80m loan to a Sheffield engineering company was undermined.

He also cited the coalition's plans to introduce a marriage allowance – a key Tory commitment which Clegg had dismissed as "patronising" prior to the general election – suggesting voters now saw the Lib Dems as "people who are giving power to the Conservatives without any influence over policies they used to oppose".

Clegg retaliated by saying he was happy to account for everything the coalition was doing, before making the comments on Iraq.

Clegg also faced a rebuke from Elfyn Llwyd, the Plaid Cymru MP, over the Liberal Democrats' support for the VAT rise.

Citing a Guardian interview in which Clegg described himself as a "revolutionary" but also a "pragmatist", Llwyd provoked laughter in the chamber when he asked him: "Are you a revolutionary pragmatist or a pragmatic revolutionary?"