Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg has been leader of the party since December 2007. He has been in politics for 11 years, first as a Member of the European Parliament, then as a Member of the UK Parliament in the seat of Sheffield Hallam.
Nicholas William Peter Clegg was born in Buckinghamshire in England in January 1967. He descended from aristocracy. His great-great-grandfather was a Russian nobleman, and his aunt a Baroness.
His familial background ensured the young Nick Clegg was exposed to many different languages. He's multilingual, and can speak English, Dutch, French, German and Spanish.
Clegg attended the Westminster School before studying archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge University. He was awarded a scholarship to study for a year at the University of Minnesota in the US, and later did a Master's degree at the College of Europe in Brussels.
It was at the college in Brussels that the politician met his wife, Miriam Gonzales Durantez, a successful lawyer specialising in EU trade. Together the couple have three children.
Prior to becoming a politician, Clegg worked as a journalist, lecturer and political consultant.
The party leader has been forthcoming about his personal life. He revealed he had slept with "no more than 30 women" during a televised interview, and admitted he was not an "active believer" in God. Clegg also divulged his chequered past, admitting he was sentenced to community service as a teenager on exchange in Germany for setting fire to a teacher's rare cacti.
Clegg also took paternity leave when his youngest son was born last year, a move that is highly unusual in British parliament.
Clegg has come under fire from within his own party for axing key policy objectives such as free childcare and free personal care for the elderly during the UK's financial crisis.
He also broke with convention to call for Commons Speaker Michael Martin to quit over his handling of the expenses issue.
