Jeremy Corbyn is a backward-looking, sepia-tinted socialist , according to former Deputy Prime Minister Sir Nick Clegg.

The ex-Lib Dem leader launched a highly-personal attack on the Labour boss, saying a better Opposition would be 20 points ahead of the Tories.

In an extraordinary 152-second diatribe unleashed at the Institute for Government think tank, the knight of the realm mocked Mr Corbyn's world view.

Sir Nick said: “It's nostalgia, I see it as a profoundly conservative - small-C conservative- view of life, it's very much hankering for a calmer, quieter, nicer yesteryear where you don't need to worry too much about globalisation, we can spend lots of money, we'll all be apparently generating the money from the top 5% who spuriously will be merrily fleeced at will.”

Sir Nick got a lot of things off his chest (
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REX/Shutterstock)

Mr Corbyn is “deeply conservative on political reform – literally nothing to say, nothing to say – a so-called radical, progressive – nothing to say. How conservative can you get?” said the former party leader.

Laying into the Labour boss, he Mr Corbyn had “not much to say on issue like civil liberties on so on”, that he “clearly regards” the EU “as a rich man's club”.

The “curious thing about Corbyn is how sort of backward-looking he is”, claimed Sir Nick.

He added: “It's a sepia-tinted socialism.”

'Sepia-tinted socialist' (
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REUTERS)

He added: “Of course I understand emotionally why the refrain against austerity after eight, nine long years of endless, remorseless cuts, cuts, cuts - I totally understand why it's nice to be invited by a softly-spoken character like Jeremy Corbyn – it's the political equivalent of being invited to take a nice, long, hot bath and have a cup of tea, no more difficult choices, all will be well, we can spend lots of money.

“Of course I understand when people say, 'Ah, wouldn't that be nice?'

“I totally understand why young people particularly rally to that.

“But ideologically, what's interesting about it is it's a curiously past, backward-looking vision and even more curiously it's actually not very successful.

“The remarkable thing in British politics at the moment is how badly Labour's doing

“A decent Opposition party would have crucified this Government months, would be 20% ahead in the polls, it's extraordinary to me that in many polls now there's a suggestion the Conservatives are marginally ahead of Labour - after what this Government's done to this country?”

Mr Corbyn is wildly popular among his supporters (
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PA)
The Labour leader has been accused of having a cult-like fan following (
Image:
Daily Post Wales)

Blasting “all the bubble-type, Glastonbury-type hype that goes around Corbyn”, he said it masked the fact that “the Labour Party is doing is performing very badly”.

Sir Nick lost his seat to a Labour candidate at the June 2017 general election.

He quit as Lib Dem leader following the 2015 general election, when his party sunk from 56 MPs to eight, as voters punished them for propping up the Tories for five years.