LIVERPOOL'S leading Lib- Dem accused her party leader of being scared to talk about poverty – falling back on Blairite terms such as "fairness" and "social mobility" instead.

But Paula Keaveney – who, last year, accused Nick Clegg of turning into a "mini-me Conservative" – said she was now much happier with his overall policy direction.

Speaking in Birmingham, the Lib-Dem leader on Liverpool City Council said: "I sometimes wonder if politicians have developed a fear of the ‘P word’ – poverty.

"As Lib-Dems, we all carry a membership card which includes the phrase that no one should be enslaved by poverty, yet, often, the 'P word' doesn't get mentioned and we adopt more general phrases.

"That's all very well, but I don't think you can really tackle something unless you acknowledge what it is. This is something we ought to be talking about a lot more frequently."

The warning comes after the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that steep spending and benefit cuts will result in higher child poverty and a more unequal Britain.

Its report earlier this month angered ministers by highlighting how progress made in the final years of the last Labour government would be thrown into reverse.

Yesterday, Mr Clegg's only mention of poverty was to quote his party's constitution. Instead, he told the conference: "I've been leading the charge for social mobility – for fairer chances, for real freedom."

A year ago, in Liverpool, Ms Keaveney lit up the first day of the Lib-Dem conference when she told her leader not to be a “mini-me Conservative”, adding: "That's not what we are in politics to do."

But, 12 months on, the councillor said she now believed Mr Clegg was winning key battles within the coalition – and more successfully trumpeting those achievements.