THE Liberal Democrats’ Nick Clegg yesterday became the first party leader to admit that he might send his children to private schools because of the poor quality of state secondary education.

In remarks that are likely to anger his grassroots supporters, Clegg, who attended Westminster school, one of the country’s best and most expensive independent schools, would not rule out “dipping into his pocket” for his sons, Antonio, 6, and Alberto, 4. “ I am not holding my children’s future and education hostage to a game of political football. I am a father before a politician,” said the Lib Dem leader in an interview for The Sunday Times.

Speaking on the eve of his party’s conference in Bournemouth, he admitted he was concerned about the standard of state secondary schools near his home, claiming they were “too big and alienating”.

“There is clearly a problem with London,” said Clegg, 41. “There is this cliff edge where a lot of committed, aspirant parents who are happy to send their children to primary school then flee in large numbers from the state sector at the secondary level.”

Clegg, who faces his first conference as party leader after taking over from Sir Menzies Campbell 10 months ago, also spoke of his bold plan to move to the right of the Tories with up to £20 billion of tax cuts, his personal struggle to “go green” and his friendship with Charles Kennedy.

The leader’s admission that he might send his children private will irritate party members, many of whom are teachers or are involved in running education authorities.

By contrast, Gordon Brown, who went to his local high school in Kirkcaldy, sends his son John to a state primary in Westminster and the four-year-old is almost certain to continue his schooling in the maintained sector.

David Cameron, the Old Etonian Tory leader, sends his daughter Nancy, 4, to a Church of England primary in Kensington, west London, but has yet to signal what will happen when she and his youngest son Arthur, now 2, reach the age of 11.

Clegg’s own boys currently attend a Roman Catholic primary in Putney, southwest London. He is an avowed atheist, but his Spanish wife Miriam, who is expecting their third child, is a committed Catholic.

“This is a shared decision we take as a family and as a couple. It was a commitment I made to my wife even before we had children that her religious views would have a significant bearing on their upbringing, irrespective of my own views,” he said.

Unlike Cameron, who has often been photographed with his children, Clegg is fiercely protective of his family’s privacy. However, like the Tory leader, he is keen to maintain his work-life balance – he broke off his Sunday Times interview to take Antonio to his first piano lesson.

While he said he hoped he would not have to move his sons out of the state sector, he added: “You are asking me to make some ideological decision about what is going to happen to my children in several years’ time. As a parent I am not going to do that. And I don’t think any real parent reading this interview would expect me to do that.”

He also insisted there would be no U-turn from his commitment to shrink the size of the state, despite criticism from party members who believe he has moved too far to the right.

“The vast majority of British taxpayers feel they have paid a lot of money to the government over several years and now want some of that back,” he said. “There are people in the party who will take some time to accept this approach.”

Clegg, who claims the Lib Dems are the true party of the environment, boasted how he sold off his official car and now drives around London on an electric moped. However, he issued a veiled attack on Cameron who has tried to boost his green credentials by holidaying in the UK.

“I have gone to the same village in the middle of Spain,” he said. “It is where my wife comes from and where my inlaws come from.

“I have never sought to say that my holidays say anything about me politically. Miriam has always said – brutally so – that since she lives in this country and has her children raised here, I can jolly well spend every minute of my holiday there.”

Clegg revealed he was taking advice from Kennedy, who was ousted from the helm of the Lib Dems two years ago because of his drink problem.

“I had lunch with Charles a few months ago in the National club,” he said. “It was an abstemious lunch and a very good one.”

Clegg has set an ambitious target of doubling the number of Lib Dem MPs to around 120 over the next two general elections. His party is particularly targeting Labour marginals in the northern cities.

However, he insisted this did not mean he was preparing for a cosy coalition with Cameron.

Asked whether he would prefer to be stranded on a desert island with Brown or the Tory leader, Clegg said: “I wouldn’t choose to go on holiday with either of them.”

And asked which of his rivals he would trust most to take his son to a piano lesson, he replied tersely: “I would scour the Earth for other people before I resorted to either of them.”

Awkward leanings on the left

LEFT-WING politicians often attack private education for promoting privilege, but this has not deterred many leading figures in the Labour party from making use of it.

- Baroness Symons, the former foreign office minister, sent her son to St Paul’s, one of the country’s leading academic independent schools, after she failed to find a place at two comprehensives in Wandsworth, south London.

- Lord Falconer, the former lord chancellor, sent his children to St Paul’s and Westminster school, where fees for boarders are £27,516 a year.

- Ruth Kelly, the privately educated former education secretary, sent her son to a £15,000-a-year independent school to help with his dyslexia.

- Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington, sent her son to City of London school, where fees are £12,267 a year.

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