NICK Clegg warned Lib Dems of more tough times ahead as he put them on a war footing for the 2015 election.
Setting out a bleak vision of the economic challenges faced by the country, the Deputy Prime Minister told activists that “nothing worthwhile can be won without a battle”.
But proving the party could manage the economy better than Labour and more fairly than the Tories would reap electoral reward.
The rallying cry came in Mr Clegg’s keynote speech at the end of a turbulent conference in Brighton.
The leadership secured backing for the coalition’s austerity programme – but faced a wider public backlash over proposals to extract more tax from the rich and strip wealthy pensioners of benefits.
In an announcement designed to soothe rank and file unrest, Mr Clegg announced that popular former leader Paddy Ashdown is being brought back to run the general election campaign.
