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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Well now, the Liberal Democrats by-election result in Rotherham this week was the worst ever by a major political party. They came in eighth place behind amongst others UKIP, the BNP and the Respect Party so in this month’s Autumn Statement the Lib Dems need to prove they are still relevant and in touch. Let’s say a very good morning now to the Lib Dem’s President, Tim Farron, Mr Farron thank you very much indeed for standing outside in the cold for us so let me draw an analogy with the Lib Dems by-election performance recently, you’ve been suffering from a bit of a freeze and isn’t it true that you have been replaced, certainly judging by this recent spate of by-elections, you have been replaced by UKIP as the third party in British politics?

TIM FARRON: I think the weather’s patchy, Dermot. I would say that’s nonsense and just to pick you up on your first comment, not to be hysterical, our result in Rotherham was twice as good as the Labour result in the Winchester by-election so it is not the worst ever result. It was a shocking one though but it is interesting that you picked on Rotherham and you didn’t pick on the other three by-elections in the last two weeks including ones in Middlesbrough, Cardiff and Manchester, the Lib Dems held our position, did very well. It’s proof of the fact that at a time like this you need to have troops on the ground, you need to have some level of strength, even if it’s only a small amount of strength, to be able to deliver a decent result but not pretending that the results in Rotherham and other places were good, they were not, they were massively disappointing but I think what’s happened, and you raised UKIP who I would say are much more of a worry to the Tory party than they are to us, I have to say, they have become the ‘none of the above’ party haven’t they? Sometimes, not through our seeking but sometimes the Liberal Democrats have been the ‘none of the above’ party in the past and the reality is that now we are one of the above, aren’t we?

DM: Okay, let’s go forward with this then, what you’ve got to prove to the British public after, as you admit, at least a disappointing performance, you’ve got to prove that you are relevant to the great mass of the British public. We’ve got the Autumn Statement coming up, are we going to hear policies in there that come from the Lib Dems?

TF: Well you talk about relevance, Leveson hasn’t a chance of reaching the statute book without the Liberal Democrats. It was very clear from Nick Clegg’s bold position on Thursday, something which we are very proud of him over, that that is the reason, the fundamental reason why we have the opportunity to see Leveson and decent rational modest press regulation put in place after the appalling scandal of the Millie Dowler family and indeed the McCann family and the victims of the 7/7 bombings and their families, some reasonable response to that. The only way that’s going to happen is because of the Liberal Democrats and because of Nick Clegg’s boldness and there are 23 million people in this country, low paid, middle income people, getting a tax cut because of the Liberal Democrats. There are some very rich people not going to get a tax cut I suspect in the Autumn Statement because of the Liberal Democrats and there are some very poor people who the Tories want to victimise, to reduce their benefits, young people who have Housing Benefit whilst they are trying to make their way on low income jobs, the Tories will want to scrap that Housing Benefit, we will stop that. The Tories want to stop us going forward with a green economy and the Liberal Democrats are making sure that we do that. We are hugely relevant and have never been more so.

DM: Okay, there’s a lot in there and I want to concentrate on Leveson in a moment or two but on the Autumn Statement, are you admitting then that there will be, on other benefits there will be a benefits freeze, there will be no Mansion Tax and there will be a raid of some sort on top rate taxpayers pensions?

TF: Well all those things are speculation, I don't know the inside details of what is coming in the Autumn Statement and there is a lot of push and pull between the two coalition partners. We behave as good colleagues but we disagree with each other on lots of things. The Conservatives want to take away money from people at the bottom end of the spectrum, we want to make sure that those who have the broadest shoulders, the wealthiest people, pay more, we think that’s fairer. The Conservatives have said there is not going to be a Mansion Tax and if the Prime Minister doesn’t want that, even though there is strong public support for it, then I guess that’s that but there are other ways of making sure you tax people for example who earn more than £200,000 a year and I suspect that’s something that is going to come in through the Autumn Statement. I also suspect whilst there may be pressure to not increase benefits as much as we might like it to happen, there won’t be any kind of a cut and that’s something some Conservatives I think will find disappointing but our job is to stand up for the less privileged majority.

DM: You are just skirting round that on the benefits, no kind of a cut but a freeze?

TF: Well I don't know, last time we managed to ensure an inflation linked rise with benefits, I suspect that the pressure on the finances, the national finances at the moment means that we won’t be able to do that again. That doesn’t necessarily mean a freeze and the ink may not be dry on the Autumn Statement yet and I think we have to fight our hardest for those people who are struggling the most.

DM: Okay, now to Leveson, you mentioned Nick Clegg’s stance, immediate response was more or less implement it in full. Let me talk to you first of all about the fact that he made his own statement and you’ve already said that you want to make more of that as the remaining years of the coalition continue.

TF: Yes, I thought it was hugely refreshing and I think it was a nice window on what coalition government is actually all about but we did it publicly. There is something hugely healthy about the fact that you’ve got an electorate that decided to give nobody power and the arithmetic meant that only two parties could actually go into a coalition, that was the Lib Dems and the Tories, there’s no other alternative, so that doesn’t mean that those two parties, once they’re in power, have to behave like some single homogenous mass. We’re clearly not, we think very different things, I’m no less a Liberal than I was on election day 2010 and neither is Nick but you operate in the interests of the country, you have to have a single government but that doesn’t mean you have to have the same point of view on everything and the opportunity to show the world what coalition government is actually all about, it’s about people being grown up and compromising but it is not about them merging their opinions. Nick Clegg and David Cameron think wildly different things on a whole range of issues and that includes standing up to the press barons and making sure that we have fair and modest regulation of the press.

DM: Okay, that’s the method but what about the message then, is the message from the Lib Dems uncompromising because there is some discussion around today that some accommodation could be found between the party leaders to get to self-regulation with teeth without having some kind of legislation?

TF: I don’t realise why there is such a hostility from the Conservative side to Leveson’s proposals on press regulation except that there was a hysteria whipped up before Leveson came out assuming he would come out with something much, much stronger. It may be that the Conservatives can’t resist trying to curry favour with the tabloid editors, I don't know but I don’t want to freeze out the Conservatives, I think it would right, or wrong rather at this point for us to say well he doesn’t agree with us, we’ve got the numbers in the rest of the House of Commons, we’ll just plough ahead. I just think that wouldn’t be possible and it wouldn’t be in the spirit of co-operation so it is important that we do look at what can be done with what’s on the table but David Cameron does need to remember that my quick analysis of the numbers in the House of Commons is that there is a majority of MPs and an overwhelming majority amongst the public, that want Leveson’s proposals on press regulation to come into practice.

DM: But what you seem to be saying, Mr Farron, is that it is Mr Cameron who will have to budge although there are some suggestions that it will be Messrs Miliband and Clegg who move closer to the Cameron position.

TF: Well if you listened to the statement, I’m sure you did, and I was in for both David Cameron’s and Nick Clegg’s statements on Thursday, you’d have heard the likes of Malcolm Rivkind and the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and the Scottish Nationalists and so on, all of them saying very similar things to Nick Clegg and also to Ed Miliband of course, so I don't think this is a case of David Cameron being ganged up on by two party leaders, it appears he is fairly isolated amongst rational thinking people who accept that you can’t possibly look the likes of Millie Dowler’s parents in the eye and not go ahead with what Leveson proposes on press regulation.

DM: Okay, Mr Farron, thank you very much indeed. Tim Farron there, the Lib Dem President in beautiful Cumbria.