“Nick Clegg occasionally raises the idea that the UK would become America's 51st state.”

The claim asserts that Nick Clegg "occasionally raises the idea that the UK would become America's 51st state." The available evidence points in the opposite direction. In 2007, when running for the Liberal Democrat leadership, Clegg wrote in the Daily Telegraph: "Britain is not the 51st state. We must act in our own national interests, not just accede to the demands of the Pentagon," arguing against uncritical alignment with the US missile defence programme. Similarly, in his 2011 speeches on Britain and Europe (as Deputy Prime Minister), Clegg argued that EU membership made the UK more valuable to the US and that leaving the EU would diminish Britain's standing — the reverse of suggesting that outside the EU Britain would become the 51st state. No evidence was found of Clegg putting forward the idea that "but for the EU we would now be the 51st State." Farage's characterization appears to invert Clegg's actual rhetorical position. **Sources:** - BBC News, "Q&A with Lib Dem leadership candidates" / Global Security, "UK urged to pull out of US missile defence program" (Nick Clegg: "Britain is not the 51st state"), https://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/7117079.stm and http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/library/news/2007/space-071117-irna01.htm - GOV.UK, "A vision for the UK in Europe: speech by the Deputy Prime Minister" and "Deputy Prime Minister's speech on Britain and Europe" (Clegg arguing EU membership enhances UK's value to US), https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/a-vision-for-the-uk-in-europe-speech-by-the-deputy-prime-minister and https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/deputy-prime-ministers-speech-on-britain-and-europe - BBC News, "Nick Clegg: UK 'valuable' to US partly because of EU," https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20969380