Clegg: Public sector pay rise 'a red line' for Lib Dem coalition

Nick Clegg has set out his final conditions for any coalition involving the Liberal Democrats.

The Lib Dem leader said it was a "red line" that teachers, nurses, police officers and public servants should be given pay rises in line with inflation in 2016/17 and 2017/18 before real-terms increases in the remaining years of the parliament.

Clegg plans to break with the policy of pay restraint during the coalition's term in office would mean that over the first two years:

Calling the Liberal Democrats the "party of hope", Clegg told an audience in Bermondsey, south London, that the Conservative approach to balancing the books was "cruel and punitive".