"And so for me the absolute priority is to try and do whatever we can to relieve that pressure on people on lower incomes, not to prioritise over that relief for a very, very small number of people, a tiny, tiny number of people, a fraction of the people at the very top."

And on the mansion tax, the Deputy Prime Minister said: "It isn't a debate about Eric Pickles and Vince Cable. I think it's completely wrong to personalise this.

"I think it is an issue about priorities. The British government doesn't have very much money because Labour didn't leave us very much money, right.

"So, the question is if we can find some money to give some tax relief to people in the country who takes precedence? For me, the position is crystal clear.

"And by the way we wrote it into the coalition agreement, at my personal insistence, which was that the absolute priority for any tax cuts are for people on low and middle incomes.

"And that's why the raising of the income tax threshold which is a Liberal Democrat idea we brought to Government remains the tax priority for this Government. That's something agreed across Government."

I also asked him about who held the codes for Britain's nuclear weapons given ongoing press debate about who was in charge while David Cameron is on holiday.

"It is so absurd, I am holding the fort. I am Deputy Prime Minister.

"David Cameron is in Cornwall, [we in] in touch with each other constantly. He deserves a holiday. I can get on with things while he is not here, but he remains Prime Minister."

He added he had chaired "countless" national security councils, but was less forthcoming on nuclear codes.

"I'm not going to talk about that at all. The Government continues with me in my position as Deputy Prime Minister obviously as the most senior member of the Government while the Prime Minister is on holiday, but he remains Prime Minister."