Nick Clegg: I want a Lib Dem education secretary

Nick Clegg arrives at a school earlier today

On a day when the SNP are nabbing all the headlines, the Liberal Democrat leader is making his pitch for coalition, telling journalists on his battle bus that he wants a Lib Dem in the influential position of Education Secretary in another coalition.

The Liberal Democrats have David Laws, the Schools Minister, who has gone into rather public battles with Michael Gove, the former Education Secretary, over free schools.

In the future Mr Clegg says he doesn’t want to waste any more time “dealing with zany ideological gimmicks”.

Instead, he says: “It would be a good thing for Liberal Democrats to run education policy on our own terms.”