Nick Clegg no local hero as Lib Dems leave him off election leaflets

Constituency colleagues decide against featuring once-popular deputy prime minister on publicity material

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• Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 April 2011 21.00 BST
• Article history

Nick Clegg in his Sheffield Hallam constituency for the general election count. Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian
It is just under a year since Nick Clegg was the pride of the Liberal Democrats and hailed as Britain's most popular leader since Winston Churchill during a brief period of election hysteria. Now the deputy prime minister's Lib Dem colleagues in his Sheffield Hallam constituency appear to be turning their backs on him and have left him out of their leaflets for the local elections on 5 May. A year ago Clegg's mugshot popped up on every page of the Hallamshire Herald, whose front page ran the banner headline: "We're backing Nick!" On page two, under two pictures of Clegg, the Lib Dems printed pictures of the party's five councillors in Hallam. Wind forward 12 months and there are no pictures of Clegg. The editors of an edition of the Lib Dem Focus freesheet have decided not to remind voters that Hallam has elected Britain's deputy prime minister as it runs the following headline on its front page: "Work starts on Stannington Park." The leaflet was published on the centre left blog Political Scrapbook. A spokesman for Clegg said: "This is just one leaflet from a huge number put out by Liberal Democrats across Sheffield, including another that went out at the same time with Nick's image on the front and the back. It's a local election. Some of our leaflets feature Nick and national issues, while others focus more on local issues and the fantastic work our local councillors are doing." "Nick is proud to be a Sheffield MP and Sheffield Lib Dems are proud that Nick is in government delivering on our manifesto. This was clear just last month when we became the first political party to hold a conference in the city." There was further embarrassment for Clegg when Tavish Scott, the Lib Dem leader in Scotland, joked about the deputy prime minister's admission in the New Statesman last week that he sometimes cries to music. Scott, whose party faces a tough fight in the elections to the Scottish parliament on 5 May, told Clyde 2 radio: "Nick Clegg doesn't make me cry – grimace occasionally, but not cry." Clegg's office laughed off Scott's remarks. "Tavish Scott is allowed to make a joke," one source said. "Nick gets on very well with Tavish and will going up to Scotland for the elections." But Lib Dems in Glasgow appear to think Clegg is not much of an asset in Scotland. The Daily Record reported that a four-page pamphlet for the Glasgow region features two pictures of the former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy but none of Clegg. A Lib Dem spokesman told the Daily Record: "Nick Clegg will be part of our Scottish election campaign, but so will Charles Kennedy. He is a tremendously popular politician."