ALEX Salmond has been accused by Nick Clegg of "grandiose vanity" and interested not with voters' concerns but just "strutting his stuff" about the Westminster stage, in a highly personal attack on the former First Minister.

Last night, the SNP hit back, suggesting the Deputy Prime Minister was acting out of jealousy because a poll suggested most people who voted Liberal Democrat in 2010 now backed Mr Salmond standing in the Gordon constituency at the General Election.

In his regular Whitehall press briefing, Mr Clegg brushed aside a recent snapshot, which pointed to a Lib Dem wipe-out at the May poll in Scotland, placing the party on just three points, and insisted opinion surveys went up and down with "surges here and surges there".

He then launched into a scathing attack on Mr Salmond, who is seeking to return to the House of Commons in the Gordon seat. It is held with a 6748 majority by Lib Dem grandee Sir Malcolm Bruce, who is stepping down at the next election.

The DPM recalled how he was in Edinburgh last week and was struck by the "astonishing arrogance and cockiness about the way in which the SNP can now sort of handpick a whole community of 60,000 voters in Gordon and say: thou shalt give a platform for Alex Salmond's ambitions to strut his stuff on the Westminster stage".

The Lib Dem leader acknowledged the Nationalists might be riding high in the opinion polls - they have now ousted Mr Clegg's party as the third largest across the UK - but warned: "They really need to be careful not to take people for granted.

"However grand you might think you are - and, boy, does Alex Salmond think he's grand - people do not like to be taken for granted whether it's in Gordon or Croydon, Edinburgh or Sheffield," declared the DPM.

He noted how the Liberal Democrats had faithfully served the people of Gordon for many years while Mr Salmond had acted in a high-handed way, "not even deigning to inform anyone before he decided what his decision was in this eeny, meeny, miny, moe decision about which constituency was going to be so blessed with his presence".

Mr Clegg insisted the voters of Gordon faced a big choice in May "between the grandiose vanity of Alex Salmond, which is all about strutting his stuff on the stage of Westminster" and Christine Jardine, an outstanding campaigner, who wants to fix the hospitals, fix the roads, fix the schools".

He added: "I relish that contest and I suspect it won't be quite the shoo-in the SNP in their complacency have predicted."

Last night, a spokesman for Mr Salmond responded, saying: "Nick Clegg should take the trouble to familiarise himself with facts before launching personal attacks."

Referring to a poll, which showed 46 per cent of those who voted Lib Dem at the last General Election backed Mr Salmond's decision to stand compared to 41 per cent who did not, he said: "It was Mr Salmond, who said that while these are great indications which give an early boost to the campaign in Gordon, it is on the ground and on the doorstep that we have to build our campaign and we take absolutely nothing for granted."

He added: "Mr Clegg must be jealous because most people who voted Lib Dem last time support Mr Salmond standing."

Earlier this month, the ex-FM announced he was seeking to return to Westminster to hold its feet to the fire on the promised more powers for Scotland; polls have suggested the SNP could see a huge surge in the number of MPs it sends to London.

The Aberdeenshire MSP chose to fight Gordon because his political home is in north east Scotland; his Holyrood constituency overlaps with the Westminster one. Given Mr Salmond's high profile, the contest in Gordon is likely to receive the most media coverage of any seat in Scotland come May.