General Election: Nick Clegg won't be part of coalition negotiation team with 'loopy' Tories to avoid getting 'bogged down in detail'

Lib Dem leader also says he prefers being Deputy Prime Minister rather than heading a department as it allows him to ensure moderation across Whitehall

Nick Clegg on the campaign trail

Nick Clegg has said he will not be part of the Liberal Democrat negotiating team if the party enters into coalition talks after the election on Thursday because leaders should not be distracted by the nitty-gritty details.

The party leaders need to free their minds of the detail in order to “make the big judgements” about the priorities for the country, leaving the “detailed stuff” to be “thrashed out by the others,” he said in an interview with The Independent. “That’s a sensible division of labour,” he added.

He would demand another stint as Deputy Prime Minister, dismissing the prospect of heading up a department.

“You can’t do that if you’re constantly neck-high in paperwork in a Whitehall department, I think it’s much easier to do that if you’re hands are free to thump the table across Whitehall when you want.”

But to secure another five years as Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Clegg’s party will have to win enough seats that is enough to combine with another party to take their shared number of seats to more than 323, and will then have to successfully negotiate the terms of a second coalition deal.

Nick Clegg on the Liberal Democrat campaign battle bus, which is making a final journey from Land's End to John o'Groats (Reuters)

The Lib Dems' negotiating team will largely be the same as in 2010 – led by Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, even though he likely to lose his seat to the SNP.

“Last time the negotiating team led by Danny Alexander, they would come and report back to me and obviously I was involved in numerous discussions with Gordon Brown and David Cameron but a lot of the detailed stuff gets thrashed out by others, “ Mr Clegg explained.

Asked why he would not be part of the team that attempts to negotiate the terms of the next five years in government, the Lib Dem leader said:

“Because I don’t think a leader of any party is there to cross every T and dot every I. You’re there to make the big judgements about what are the priorities and what’s for the country and what’s right for your party and that’s why I’ve been very explicit about the six red lines that I’ve set out without which I just won’t go into a government at all.”

The six commitments Mr Clegg will not compromise are pledges to raise education spending for two-to-19 year-olds, invest £8 billion a year in the NHS by 2020, raise the personal tax allowance to £12,500, introduce a “stability budget” in the first 50 days, increase pay rises for public sector workers and a “green line” to protect the environment.