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Nick Clegg 'united' with Tories in condemning mass strike

DEPUTY Prime Minister Nick Clegg said yesterday that he stands “united” with Tories condemning more than a million workers preparing to take strike action over poverty wages. 

The Liberal Democrat leader refused to differentiate his party’s position on tomorrow’s action from that of Tory frontbench colleagues who have called for a ban on strikes. 

Mr Clegg revealed his disdain for low-paid workers under scrutiny from Labour MPs at Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions. 

Walsall North MP David Winnick told him that millions of people “forced into acute hardship” by the government will join picket lines tomorrow. 

And he asked: “Do I take it from the Deputy Prime Minister that he will be condemning those people exercising their democratic rights like his Tory colleagues will do?”

Mr Clegg said: “We remain united on this side of the house, if not on all issues, in clearing up the unholy mess bequeathed to us by the party opposite.”

Attempting to justify the pay cuts, he added that there is “nothing fair, nothing progressive about saying no difficult decisions need to be taken on public spending.”

MP Dennis Skinner said the remarks showed how the two-faced Lib Dem has changed his tune since becoming DPM. 

“There will be students on the march,” he bayed. “He could take his little pledge card and promise them the moon.”

Bassetlaw MP John Mann had earlier pointed out Con-Dem changes to voter registration will hit students “particularly keen to vote in the next general election.”

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