Tim Farron has rebutted claims he was a Conservative in his younger years, but admitted hanging a photo of Margaret Thatcher above his bed as a teenager.
The Liberal Democrat leader said Thatcher was among a gallery of politicians he had pictures of in his schoolboy bedroom.
But he dismissed claims from a then-classmate that he stuck an ‘I Love Maggie’ on one of his textbooks.
“I had a Carl Sagan photograph above my bed who was of course the great - I guess the human voice of NASA,” he told ITV’s The Leader Interviews.
“I had pictures of strange sort of left wing politicians. I remember I had a Mrs Thatcher picture. I had a John F Kennedy picture. I had a Jo Grimond picture.”
Pressed on whether the sticker claim was true, Farron responded:
“So I had a…there was a young woman, let’s be careful what I say who when I was about 15/16 who had a soft top Morris Minor and she was a young Tory and so I was somewhat taken aback by her, but frankly not by her politics.”
- Tim Farron
Farron was highly critical of Thatcher in his later years.
Earlier this year, he criticised Prime Minister Theresa May by comparing her to the former premier.
“You look at the fact that the supposedly free market Conservative party is now taking us out of the single market, remember that was drawn and initiated by Margaret Thatcher, so Theresa May at the very least now is making Margaret Thatcher look like a left wing liberal.”
Also in the ITV interview, Farron refused to say whether there should be an upper limit on immigration.
“I’m not saying no figure but you set an artificial figure you will break it and you’ll end up telling British business what is good for British business,” he said.
“And I think immigration’s been a blessing to this country not a curse there are few politicians who’ve got the guts to say that, I will.
“But we have controls on immigration this country and too often politicians are too happy to use immigration and immigrants in particular as an excuse for their own failures and I will not do that.”
Farron’s party failed to make strong showings in the recent local elections, losing 28 seats, but the leader said its vote share had increased in key target seats ahead of the general election on June 8.