The Liberal Democrats will add a heart to a Conservative government and a brain to a Labour one.

Our Sheffield and London homes are worth well over a million but the bank owns most of them - we are mortgaged up to the gills.

I am quite strict as a dad but I don't want to be censorious.

I'm very lucky. I am one of those people who is able to go home, shut the front door and completely focus on the kids.

The Conservative Party is not honouring the commitment to Lords reform and, as a result, part of our contract has now been broken. Clearly I cannot permit a situation where Conservative rebels can pick and choose the parts of the contract they like, while Liberal Democrat MPs are bound to the entire agreement.

Grown-up politicians talk to each other across party lines. Over the last few weeks I have had lengthy conversations with Ed Miliband, David Miliband, with Tony Blair, with Peter Mandelson... talking about Europe, talking about political reform.

Although I am a young leader, I actually came to it strangely quite late. I have a different perspective, partly because of my family, partly because of what I did for ten years: negotiating trade deals, working out in Central Asia doing assistance projects.