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Nick Clegg today branded Jeremy Corbyn “pants” and accused Labour of being the “foot soldiers of a Tory, regressive Brexit ”.

He ruled out a return to politics as a "British Emmanuel Macron", despite a loud roar of support for the suggestion from party faithful.

And he took an enthusiastic swipe at deputy leader Jo Swinson, widely expected to be the party's next leader, for criticising the Lib Dems role in the coalition government.

Swinson told Lib Dem conference in Brighton yesterday that it was time for the party to "own the failures" of the coalition.

But Clegg hit back, telling a packed event on the fringe of the party's conference in Brighton today: "We entered into government eight, almost nine years ago.

"And there's something quite Lib Dem about still going on about things you did that made you feel uncomfortable so long ago."

(Image: PA)

He added: "The narrative is that 'you went into government, you sold your soul, basically just merrily went along with a savage, ideological, uncompromising approach to austerity which deliberately penalised the poor and rewarded the rich.

"It is not true."

Arguing the Lib Dems had been blamed for everything "from bad weather to traffic jams", Sir Nick went on to attack Labour, accusing them of hypocrisy for attacking the coalition, then failing to block Theresa May's Brexit plan.

He said: "It’s quite extraordinary that a party that sanctimoniously lambasted us for half a decade because of our sincere attempts to try and basically clear up a lot of the problems which they presided over in the first place, that they are the footsoldiers of a Tory, regressive Brexit.

"It just beggars belief that these people dare call themselves progressive."

(Image: PA)

(Image: PA)

He said because Jeremy Corbyn is “a very old fashioned, 1970s Euro socialist who regards the European Union as a club for big business, he’s been going along and providing support to Theresa May.

“The extraordinary thing is, this government is so rubbish, a half decent opposition party not only would be 20% ahead, I reckon a half decent opposition party could destroy this government in a week.”

He asked the hall how it was possible that “the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn can be as pants as they are? Why are they so bad at their job?”

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

There was a roar of applause when Sir Nick was asked if he fancied being Britain’s answer to French President Emmanuel Macron, coming out of retirement to lead a popular progressive movement to election victory.

But Sir Nick poured cold water on the idea, saying: “The secret of breakthrough characters like Macron is that they arrive relatively unencumbered - they don’t carry baggage with them.”

He added: “I had an immense privilege to be Deputy Prime Minister, the even greater honour and privilege to lead this wonderful party for eight years - you pick up baggage. Of course you do.

“You can’t pretend you can suddenly shed all that baggage and present yourself as a completely fresh start.

“I think it’s much, much more likely that new characters will emerge from some of the parties to lead that process of renewal in this country.

“But boy, do we need that renewal.”

A Lib Dem source said: “The real question is not ‘is Nick Clegg the British Macron?’ - it’s “is Macron the French Nick Clegg?””