MP Tom Brake was accused of dodging the question when asked if key policies in the Liberal Democrat manifesto would be up for negotiation, should the party enter into coalition talks after the general election.

The Carshalton and Wallington Member of Parliament, who is also deputy leader of the House of Commons, faced questioning from Andrew Neil when he appeared on the BBC’s Daily Politics show, on Thursday, February 12.

The presenter put it to Mr Brake that according to polls the Lib Dems will be lucky to hold onto half of their seats, and asked if anything on the front page of their manifesto was non-negotiable.

Mr Brake replied: "If there is a hung parliament, having a negotiating position that sets out ‘these are the things we insist on’, that is not going to be our approach."

He was then accused of not answering the question, and when pressed further came back with: "These are our priorities.

"We want to make sure we deal with the budget deficit in the next three years, and from then on we need to ensure we don’t do that by piling additional pressure on the poorer section of the population which is what the Conservatives want to do.

"But we have an end date for getting rid of the deficit."

Mr Neil responded with: "That’s a really interesting answer, but it’s not to the question I asked you."

Mr Brake was joined by former leader of the opposition Michael Howard, Labour MP for Cardiff West Kevin Brennan, and UKIP Culture spokesman Peter Whittle.