NICK Clegg has branded as "preposterous" claims that David Cameron or Ed Miliband could govern Britain after the next General Election at the head of a minority government.
The Deputy Prime Minister was responding to suggestions that the Prime Minister is actively considering putting in a "no coalition deal" section in the Conservative election manifesto, ruling out the prospect of another parliament of power- sharing with the Liberal Democrats.
At Westminster, this was seen by many as simply a kite-flying exercise to appease Tory right-wingers, who are fed up with sharing power with the Liberal Democrats and feel aghast at the possibility of another Lib-Con coalition.
Meantime, Len McCluskey, the Unite General Secretary, has urged the Labour leader to run a minority government if he failed to win an outright majority in May 2015.
Speaking to reporters at his monthly press conference in the Scotland Office, Mr Clegg said: "What you are seeing, in a sense, is the last gasp of the assumption from the two bigger parties that somehow they have got a right to run things.
"They are now so desperate they are claiming they will have the right to decide how this country is governed even if they don't win a majority, which is a clearly preposterous assertion."
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