Lib Dem leader demands apology after home secretary said his party had put children at risk, amid new low in coalition relations

Nick Clegg has accused Theresa May of making “false and outrageous” slurs against the Liberal Democrats after she said the party had put children’s lives at risk by blocking surveillance legislation known by critics as the snooper’s charter.

He has written to the home secretary demanding an apology, warning that coalition relations are now at a low point.

Speaking on his Call Clegg radio show, the deputy prime minister said it was “dangerously irresponsible” of May to blame the Lib Dems for risking lives when she promised the Conservatives would revive plans to give the security services and police more internet snooping powers.

“To say I’ve put children at risk is a level of misinformation I’ve not witnessed in four and a half years of this government,” he said.

The Lib Dem leader said he had made it clear in the strongly worded letter that he expected an apology, but that he had not spoken to her directly.

“I thought it was one of the most misleading and outrageous platform speeches I ever heard in conference season for a very long time,” he said. “This is a new low point in coalition relations. Her suggestion was that the fact that the Liberal Democrats had said no to the snooper’s charter, which you will remember was the proposal from Theresa May that the state should be able to store every website inquiry that you ever visit over a year, was putting children at risk, when of course the facts that turn out to be the case are quite, quite different.”

Clegg even turned the attack around and suggested Home Office delays were endangering children’s lives. He said: “If you go back in your archives we will discover that I have been saying for months that that is a problem we should deal with, and guess who has been dragging their feet to do something about it: the Home Office.

“I think I am entitled to feel a little bit aggrieved to hear a Conservative home secretary somehow claim that my party is putting children at risk when it is their inactivity that is doing just that.”

The Lib Dems said they were not happy about the accusation at the time, with the backbencher Julian Huppert writing to express his “utter dismay” at her claims.

However, this is the first time the Lib Dem leader has made it clear that the dispute is affecting coalition relations.

Over the past four years, Clegg has most frequently clashed with the Home Office over civil liberties and the Department for Education over schools policy, but tensions have calmed since the departure of the combative Michael Gove from the role of education secretary.

May will reply but it is unlikely she will concede in a spat with the Lib Dems given that both sides are now keen to differentiate their policy positions before the election.