Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg poured out buckets of hypocrisy in the Commons yesterday when angry Labour MPs accused him of shoring up the Tories' war on the poor.

The shameless Lib Dem leader pleaded that he did not support all the welfare cuts and professed disagreement with the Tory target of reducing immigration figures to tens of thousands.

But when Labour MPs demanded that he resign, he replied that he must stay in place to help "clear up the black hole in the public finances" left by the Labour government.