Clegg joins campaign

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg will meet engineering trainees when he visits Oldham today to campaign in the by–election which he hopes will revive his party’s fortunes after a dramatic slump in the polls.

But the Deputy Prime Minister looks set to face questions about the state of the coalition Government in the wake of secretly-recorded comments from a string of Lib-Dem ministers — including Business Secretary Vince Cable — voicing differences with their Conservative partners.

Mr Clegg wil be joined by his deputy Simon Hughes.

The contest in Oldham East and Saddleworth, triggered by a court decision annulling Phil Woolas’s general election victiory, is being seen as a test of how the coalition partners will campaign against one another.

The chairman of the Conservative Party, Baroness Warsi, will today be on an Oldham town centre walkabout with Tory candidate Kashif Ali.