Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg refused to tell voters in East Oxford who he would back in a coalition Government on a visit to the city.

Asked by the Oxford Mail to tell residents, thousands of which work in the public sector, where his loyalties would lie in a hung Parliament he side-stepped the issue.

Mr Clegg visited Oxford Brookes University where he outlined his plans for tax reform, decentralising the NHS and scrapping tuition fees.

But he would not be drawn on who his party would side with in the event of a hung Parliament.

Speaking about Gordon Brown’s insult of a Rochdale resident, Mr Clegg said: “If someone asks you a question you should show them respect. He has apologised and that is right.”