Clegg: Corbyn and Cameron can help Lib Dems bounce back

Nick Clegg has said a "great opportunity" exists for the Liberal Democrats to "bounce back" from the election humiliation he oversaw and reclaim the centre ground of British politics.

In his first major speech since resigning as party leader in the wake of the election, which saw the party reduced from 57 to eight seats in the Commons, Mr Clegg said the timing of the defeat was particularly painful.

He said the right-wing measures already undertaken by David Cameron's Conservative administration and the election of left-winger Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader provided expanded room for a Lib Dem fightback.

Speaking at the party conference in Bournemouth, he said it was a "great irony" that May's crushing result came as a "great big liberal-sized hole has opened up in the middle of British politics".

Mr Clegg defended his party's role in coalition but told the conference hall he agreed he had failed to sell his vision of the party's role to the British public in the election campaign.

Mr Clegg praised his successor Tim Farron as a "great campaigner", a "liberal to his fingertips" and "brave" for going to Calais to "put a human face on the statistics" amid the humanitarian refugee crisis.

He urged the party to rally together around the new leader and become the voice of "mainstream Britain".