Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg visiting Prysmian Cables in Eastleigh

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is at Prysmian Cables in Eastleigh to meet with apprentices at the factory.

Speaking to apprentices, Mr Clegg stressed the importance of increasing the value of vocational qualifications.

"The point is making sure we value academic qualifications and vocational qualifications with the same enthusiasm," he said.

Mr Clegg was asked a variety of questions including action and funding against climate change, the threat of UKIP in Eastleigh, the cost of university tuition fees and funding for people with disabilities at university and in apprenticeships.

Mr Clegg said the country got far more out of the European Union that we paid in and UKIP was not the answer.

"I think they're getting away with coming up with fantasy land that everything can be solved if you wish the rest of the world away.  We can't - we live in the world we live in, we have to grapple with it."

Mr Clegg also visited the Ageas Bowl cricket ground in West End for a meeting and posed for photographs.

The ground is the site of a 171-bed hotel which is underpinned by taxpayers' money as the council has agreed to buy the completed hotel.

Mr Clegg was here with Mr Thornton last year to celebrate the by-election victory and told the Daily Echo that he was confident the Liberal Democrats could retain the seat at the next General Election.

L to r David Mann, chief executive of the Ageas Bowl, Nick Clegg, Paul Atkinson, chief executive of Prysmian and Eastleigh MP Mike Thornton.

He is here to celebrate the fact that the number of people beginning apprenticeships in the South East has increased by 90 per cent under the present Government.

He will also present a plaque to mark the company’s 100th year in manufacturing in the UK and is due to take part in a question and answer session with the apprentices.

Mr Clegg visited the town several times during the Eastleigh by-election in February last year, and previously visited the firm in 2010 and David Cameron also visited the plant during last year's by-election.