Guardian News and Media/London

Nick Clegg has persuaded his party to stick to the path of austerity after promising he would argue for higher taxes on the rich and reject Conservative plans for spending cuts going into the next election.

The deputy prime minister won a controversial motion saying the Liberal Democrats were right to sign up to reduce the deficit through cuts to public spending.

After two hours of intense debate at the party’s conference in Glasgow, members backed Clegg and rejected an amendment that proposed relaxing the “fiscal mandate” - the coalition’s plan to reduce Britain’s debts and deficit.

A string of LibDem heavyweights lined up in favour of the leadership’s position, including Vince Cable, the business secretary.

He had been expected to stay away from the debate, but decided to turn up at the last minute after his absence was interpreted as a failure to back Clegg over the economy.

The party leader appeared to win round a sceptical audience by promising that LibDems would argue in 2015 for “more fair taxes” and reject any Conservative argument for reducing the deficit purely through spending cuts.

Summing up the debate, Clegg urged his members to “be brave” and “stick to the plan”. “None of that ties our hands on tax and spend,” he said. “I am against 100% spending cuts. We will go into the next election in favour of more fair taxes. Nothing prevents us from having independent policies.” He added: “Please be careful with what you wish for. If we start messing about with the big goalposts stuck in the ground that set the frame we will destroy jobs and decrease prosperity.

“The only people who will welcome what we do today, if we adopt these amendments, are George Osborne and Ed Balls.”

Clegg’s motion recognised Britain’s “difficult financial position” and “the dangers of failing to bring the public finances under control”. It is part of a LibDem strategy to “own the recovery” and stop the Tories taking all the credit for the economy starting to improve, he said.

However, the Social Liberal Forum, a group on the left of the party, challenged Clegg’s argument by tabling two amendments. One called for the economy to be “rebalanced”, which would mean borrowing more money. Another wanted a total removal of borrowing limits for councils to boost social housing and a wider remit for the Bank of England to boost employment and incomes.

Naomi Smith, an activist from the Social Liberal Forum, said the party leadership was guilty of an “ideological merger” with the Tories on economic policy. She was cheered as she told members that the LibDems should not “collude” with Osborne on cuts to public services.

Cable attacks ‘hated’ Tories

Vince Cable rocked the coalition yesterday with a ferocious attack on “the hated Tories” and a warning that the economic recovery hailed by George Osborne could implode. He also unleashed a full-blown assault on the Conservatives over immigration, accusing them of “squawking with panic” at the arrival of foreign workers under the EU’s free movement of labour. But Cable’s speech at the Liberal Democrat annual rally in Glasgow also laid bare differences with leader Nick Clegg, who was placing more emphasis on the party gaining credit for its role in the coalition and the economic revival. The business secretary was, instead, scathing in his onslaught against the Conservatives, branding them “callous”, and raising the alarm over the economic recovery being too heavily based on a house price surge in London and the South-East and a revival in the City.