Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said that the Liberal Democrats had taken a “real knock”, as voters spilled their anger with the coalition’s cuts on his party.

Although Lib Dems have lost control to the Labour party, in Mr. Clegg’s home patch of Sheffield, the deputy Prime Minister insisted that they would “dust ourselves down” and carry on with the work of the coalition.

Mr. Clegg told the Press Association: “What we need to do is to redouble our efforts to not only explain but show precisely one of the reasons the Liberal Democrats are in government is so that we don’t go backwards as a country, but that we go forwards.

“We have taken a real knock last night. But we need to get up, dust ourselves down and move on, because we have got a really big job to do.”

It was a night of humiliation for the Lib Dems, as last night’s election results was their worst showing since the 1980′s. It also brought them a string of heavy losses in elections for English local councils and the Scottish and Welsh legislatures.

The night also did not finish well for Labour, however, as they suffered a battering in Scotland – where the Scottish National Party was on course for an overall majority in Holyrood – while failing to make the predicted town hall gains in England.