Cutting debt "binds the coalition together"

The coalition`s shared agenda of cutting debt is the "glue which binds this coalition together".

This evening, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, will make that claim in a speech to the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), in which he`ll insist that the deficit-reduction programme is the right way forward, despite widespread anger about the sheer scale of the cuts involved.

Mr Clegg will argue for the need to take a new approach, rather than the `short-termist debt-driven economy of recent decades`.

Looking ahead, he`ll say that he we need to move towards a future that`s "less spectacular" but "more prosperous and more profitable".

"Tackling deficit is a necessary response to an immediate emergency. It is the glue that binds this coalition together."

At the end of March, public sector net debt was £903.4bn - excluding the cost of `financial interventions` - according to the Office for National Statistics (OFT). One year earlier, it stood at just £760.3bn.

In other words, the debt today is about the same size as 60% of GDP - the figure which basically measures how much the country produces in a year.

In a speech on economic growth, Mr Clegg noted: "The Chancellor and the Governor of the Bank of England have said that recovery from the recession is likely to be `choppy` for some time. The Prime Minister and I have both said that the nation faces a long, hard road back to prosperity."