The Liberal Democrats must cheer up and ditch their hairshirts if they want to win more seats at the next election, Northavon MP Steve Webb has urged.

Speaking at the party's annual conference in Bournemouth, he told delegates there was too much despair and not enough hope in the messages they were sending out to the public.

In a warning to the party leadership, which has raised the prospect of fighting the next election on a manifesto of savage spending cuts, Mr Webb said alienating almost every section of society by floating plans for slashing funds would not win votes.

During the Fresh Start for Britain debate he told members: "I'm all in favour of being straight with people, of telling it like it is. But I think we have overdone the despair.

"If Martin Luther King had stood up and said: 'I have a nightmare', I can't help feeling that history might have been slightly different."