Nick Clegg admitted Thursday he owns a “big green onesie” as he launched a weekly radio phone-in aiming to rescue his party’s rock-bottom poll ratings.
A man named as Harry from Sheffield, home to Clegg’s constituency, asked the deputy prime minister on the London-based LBC radio show, “Are you a man of the people and have you ever worn a onesie?”
Clegg replied: “I was given a big green onesie in Sheffield, which I have kept in its packaging. I possess one but I haven’t worn it yet.”
He later tweeted an image of himself holding — but not wearing — the onesie, which has the words “The Incredible Hulk” printed on the front.
Clegg said he had been given the garment by his party’s youth wing.
Onesies, or romper suits for adults, were 2012’s Christmas gift of choice, with Asda saying the weekend before Christmas that its sales of the sleepwear were about to hit one million.
Singer Cheryl Cole has worn a leopard-print one in public, while London mayor Boris Johnson tweeted that he had a “very remarkable James Bond-style Union Jack onesie”. Newcastle United football club’s official onesie sold out on the day of delivery.
Onesies’ popularity has soared as that of Clegg’s Liberal Democrats has plummeted. An Opinium poll on December 29 placed the junior coalition partners’ popularity at 8 percent.
It was beaten soundly in the poll by the right-wing United Kingdom Independence Party, previously viewed as a fringe group, which scored 15 percent. Labour was on 39 percent and the Conservatives on 29 percent.
In Thursday’s “Call Clegg” phone-in, the deputy prime minister defended his party’s coalition with the Conservatives, whose economic policies have been vilified by party members as favouring the rich.
He said the party had come to power at an “excruciatingly difficult” time but that listeners should “grant us the credit for doing the very big good things” such as a rise in the income tax threshold and free childcare for two-year-olds.
Nick Clegg owns 'big green onesie'
