'You can't reheat old coffee' Clegg hints Tony Blair CANNOT lead new political movement

Asked about the future of centre-ground politics in an interview on Newsnight, the former Deputy Prime Minister lamented that “moderate” voters were becoming increasingly isolated.

He said: “What will centre-ground voters feel like in two, three, four, five years time when they see a Government that will remorselessly be pulled in the direction of Nigel Farage rather than the direction of Andy Street?

“It is clear that centre-ground, moderate, internationalist, economically credible, socially progressive voters in the United Kingdom are casting about at the moment for a new home or new homes.”

But when the interviewer suggested Mr Blair could make a comeback, Mr Clegg laughed.

He said: “Well, I don’t think you can reheat old coffee in politics generally, but I equally don’t think that vacuums in British politics remain unfilled for very long.”

The Sheffield Hallam MP also accused the Conservative party of forming a “merger” with Ukip and shifting to the political right in an attempt to win votes from the Eurosceptic party.

He said: “You have a really very remarkable thing going on under our nose right now during this election campaign, which is the creation of, in effect, a new party – it is a merger between Theresa May and Nigel Farage.

“You had four million Ukip voters at the last General Election, the vast bulk of which by all accounts are going to vote for the Conservatives, so you have a new political party.

“That new political party’s not going to be a one-nation party, it is a new political party formed through the merger of the Conservative party and a pretty right-wing, and in some cases far-right political movement.”

Recent polling places the Liberal Democrats on in per cent with less than a month to go until Britain goes to the ballot box on June 8.

Ukip, however, are polling even lower at around five per cent amid a collapse in public support for the party.