MANY angry former Lib Dem voters in the North will not return to supporting the party, Nick Clegg says.

The Deputy Prime Minister acknowledged that some voters were so disillusioned at the decision to enter a coalition with the Conservatives, that his party had lost them for good.

The collapse in support has been most severe in Northern areas, where lingering anti- Tory sentiment is most common.

But Mr Clegg said his party would still be a fighting force at the 2015 General Election, saying: “I think we are going to have to get used to coalition.”

He said: “Of course, some people who used to vote for us absolutely hate the fact that we are in coalition with the Conservatives.

“As, by the way, if we had gone into coalition with Labour, a whole lot of people who had voted for us would absolutely hate that we had gone into coalition with Labour “Of course these people have peeled away, and many of them might not come back.”

However, Mr Clegg said he was relishing the chance to present his party as one that had helped rescue Britain from economic disaster.

He said: “We will have been bloodied by the searing experience of delivering in government over five tough and difficult years.

“What we will be able to say, which we could not say for 60, 70 years, is that we can be trusted to sort out the economy.

“That is an extremely important thing in politics.”

Mr Clegg joked that, despite his difficulties, there were other people who had received even more negative attention than himself in recent weeks.

He said: “Look at Ryan Giggs; look at Ed Miliband.

One is a fading left-winger who has upset his brother and is having a difficult time with the press... and the other is a footballer.”