Nick Clegg defends former porn director standing for Lib Dems

A former porn director who has been selected as a parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats would be a passionate campaigner for her local area, Nick Clegg insisted today.

Clegg said Anna Arrowsmith's previous profession was "not exactly my cup of tea", and she was certainly no "cardboard cut-out Westminster politician".

But he said it was important that "people like her" who care about their local areas put themselves forward.

Clegg told GMTV he had "just read the reports" about Arrowsmith, who is managing director of adult entertainment company Easy on the Eye Productions and will stand for election in Gravesham, Kent.

Clegg was speaking ahead of the Lib Dems' weekend spring conference, which begins in Birmingham tonight as the party seeks to rally activists ahead of the general election.

The party unveiled its election slogan, "Change that works for you. Building a fairer Britain", as Clegg promised there would be "no backroom deals" with other parties in preparation for the possibility of hung parliament.

The past career of Arrowsmith, a prospective parliamentary who works under the pseudonym Anna Span, came under the spotlight today as Clegg was asked to give his views on her career, which has seen her direct more than 250 raunchy scenes, as well as write a book to guide couples in how to make homemade porn.

Clegg told GMTV: "It's not exactly my cup of tea what she's been doing before she has put herself forward in parliament but I also think it's really important that people like her who really care a lot about her local area are encouraged to come into politics. You can't accuse her of being a cardboard cut-out Westminster politician."

Asked if he had an issue with somebody involved in the pornography industry representing his party, he said: "I don't know exactly what she's been doing in the past. She's not done anything illegal and she cares passionately about her area. She has been chosen to be the candidate for that area. Let's see. I think all the indications are that she's going to be a really, really strong voice for that local area."

Yesterday, the 38-year-old, who is married and lives with her husband Tim and their dogs in Groombridge, near Tunbridge Wells, insisted she was ready to win the seat at the general election, which is currently held by Adam Holloway for the Conservatives.

Arrowsmith faces a tough fight in a constituency, where the Lib Dems trailed in third place on just 10.7% of the vote in 2005 and where political watchers expect a tough two-way fight in a seat where Labour had just 654 fewer votes than the Conservatives at the last poll.

Arrowsmith, who has an MA in philosophy, said she was spurred into standing for election by the MPs' expenses scandal and a belief that women are under-represented in parliament.

She said: "If people don't know what I do for a living then they would never know. The local party and the local people who I have so far met have seen that I'm very driven."

She added: "When people get to see me, they will realise that I'm used to project managing and that I'm driven to achieve change rather than just promising it."

Named best director at the 2008 and 2009 UK Adult Film and Television Awards, she describes herself as a keen campaigner for women's rights and anti-censorship issues and says she has spent 12 years trying to make the adult industry more female-friendly.

Her first commercially-released programme was on Television X, titled Eat Me/Keep Me, which led to further X-rated shows and her becoming chair of the Adult Industry Trade Association.

Clegg has pledged to double the number of Lib Dem MPs within two general elections. The party currently has 63 MPs.

Clegg, who will address Lib Dems at the conference rally this evening and make a keynote speech on Sunday, said today there would be "no backroom deals" with the other political parties ahead of the general election.

With recent polls suggesting the country is heading for a hung parliament at the election, expected to take place on 6 May, Clegg repeated the four tests he would set for Labour and the Conservatives if they were to seek his party's support He said whichever party had the clearer mandate from the voters would have the "moral right" to govern, "either on its own or with others".

"There are no backroom deals between the political parties," he said.

"If a party has got more support and has got a clearer mandate from the British people than any other party, even if they don't have an absolute majority, then I think we live in a democracy, that party has got the moral right to seek to govern, either on its own or with others.

"I've been much clearer than Gordon Brown or David Cameron in saying that, as far as the Liberal Democrats are concerned, in terms of us exercising our influence we will focus on the really big things that matter to us."

The four big issues for the Lib Dems are fairer taxes, so people do not pay tax on the first £10,000 they earn; Better schools, with more one-to-one tuition and smaller class sizes; making sure that our economy is no longer "held hostage" by the banks; and clean, fair politics in the wake of the expenses scandal, including giving people the right to sack their MPs if they have been shown to be corrupt.

The Lib Dem leader said his party was delivering a "copper-bottomed guarantee" that whatever happens in the election, "the one thing you can predict is that the Liberal Democrats will deliver those four steps to a fairer Britain".

Clegg was able to boast a new addition to the Lib Dem ranks today when former Tory MEP Edward McMillan-Scott joined the Liberal Democrats.

The MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber lost the Tory whip last year after he clashed with David Cameron over the Tory leader's decision to remove his MEPs from the centre-right European People's party and set up a new group, European Conservatives and Reformists, with controversial allies from eastern Europe.