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Nick rode a wave of popular support to become the first Liberal Democrat to achieve high office, serving as Deputy Prime Minister in the Conservative-led coalition government. After serving in the cabinet he departed politics for the private sector, moving to Silicon Valley and taking a key role at Facebook, later Meta, as its VP of Global Affairs and Communications.
View / Submit“Extremely interesting, he certainly did not disappoint”
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Nick Clegg served as Deputy Prime Minister in Britain’s first post war Coalition. As leader of the Liberal Democrats he led the party to their first term in government for 100 years. After almost twenty years in politics Nick moved into business, as Facebook’s Vice-President of Global Affairs and Communications, a rare instance of the tech giant making a senior appointment from outside Silicon Valley.
After working at the European Commission in transport and trade, Nick served as MEP for the East Midlands before entering Parliament as Member for Sheffield Hallam. He soon became Lib-Dem spokesman on Europe, Foreign and Home Affairs, before winning a leadership contest with a mission to build a strong challenge to the two larger parties. In the 2010 election campaign he emerged as a popular counter to Gordon Brown and David Cameron - distinguishing himself in the televised leaders’ debates. Faced with a hung parliament, Nick negotiated a coalition agreement with the Conservatives that would see them in government, but dogged by controversy.
As Deputy Prime Minister at a time of recession, Nick was part of the leadership team faced with the challenge of economic recovery. He and his party bore the brunt of public and media criticism for the programme of austerity, especially cuts in public spending. (Despite this he became the first government figure to put his head above the parapet on a weekly phone-in show.) Perhaps best known as a passionate pro-European, Nick also battled for progressive policies on civil liberties, social mobility, early years education and NHS mental health treatment.
In his best-selling book Politics: Between the extremes, Nick offers a frank account of his time in government and makes the case for a politics based on reason and compromise. In his follow-up, How To Stop Brexit (And Make Britain Great Again) he laid out the seriousness of the UK’s departure from the EU, the risks, the politics and the alternatives. In print, on air and on stage Nick continues to comment widely on how populism has changed politics in Westminster and beyond. With honesty and humility he looks at his own role in events and reveals what’s going on behind the scenes.
