Clegg: I Reached For Cigarette After Exit Poll

Nick Clegg has said the first thing he did when the exit polls were out on election night was to reach for a cigarette.

In the first interview since he stepped down as Liberal Democrat leader following the disastrous result for the party, he said could not believe the results could have been so bad.

Mr Clegg said he had been with his wife in his Sheffield constituency when the poll indicated a near wipe-out for the Liberal Democrats - they went from having 57 seats to just eight.

"First thing I did is reach for a cigarette, not having smoked for about two-and-a-half months," he told LBC.

He went on: " ... Like everybody else I was pretty blind-sided by that exit poll ... Initially like everybody else I thought 'that can't be right'."

Mr Clegg said the first colleagues he spoke to were Danny Alexander and David Laws, who both lost their seats and who he said had "worked their socks off for the country".

But he denied he had destroyed the Liberal Democrats, saying the party would "bounce back", and said he would have resigned ahead of the election had he thought it would do any good.

He said: "My own view is that changing leader a year before the election wouldn't have made much difference to, for instance, whether we would have been able to withstand Scottish nationalism north of the border."

He added that despite the result he did not regret going into coalition with the Conservatives because it had provided a stable country, although he added he would not be playing tennis with David Cameron any more.

Mr Clegg said the Liberal Democrats had delivered income tax cuts, the pupil premium, pensions reform and a better apprenticeship scheme.

Since the election the former deputy prime minister said members of the public had been very generous with their support. He said: "They thought we would get a slap on the wrist, they didn't think we would get thrown to the bottom of the stairs."

But he said the thought the party had suffered because of the public was frightened by the possibility of a Labour government "dancing to the tune of the SNP".

In the wide-ranging interview Mr Clegg also said he had no grudge against Vince Cable, who was accused of plotting to oust him with the Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott.

And he hinted that he would like the Europe brief when a new Liberal Democrat leader is elected, while refusing to back either Tim Farron or Norman Lamb for the top job.

However, he ruled out becoming a frontman in the EU referendum campaign and said: "I'm not looking to man the barricades in a leading role."

He also spoke of how he "marvelled at the comic genius of whoever came up with" the " Edstone " - Labour's party pledges hewn in granite.

But while he said the election was the lowest moment, he was not going to disappear from British politics in a "puff of smoke" and would continue working as MP for Sheffield Hallam.

His interview came after it was reported he had considered resigning as Liberal Democrat leader in May 2014 after the damning local and European elections.

According to The Guardian, Mr Clegg told one adviser: "If I believe - and I am very close to thinking it - I am the problem and not the solution, I have to stand to one side."

Although the MP denied any plans to resign in the aftermath of the disappointing result, the newspaper claims two of his closest confidants, Lord Ashdown and Tim Farron, persuaded him to stay.

Another senior Lib Dem took more of a hard line when Mr Clegg wanted to quit, telling him: "You don't have that luxury - this is your burden now, you have to carry it through to the election."

However, despite the pressures of the coalition government, Lord Ashdown said Mr Clegg quickly recovered from the doubts about his leadership and the party's future.