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Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, said he had never heard of Liberal Reform. Photograph: Derek Peters/Demotix/Corbis

A leading Liberal Democrat grassroots group has said that members are being left in the dark about how the partys policies would be paid for.

In a briefing before the partys spring conference in Liverpool this weekend, Liberal Reform described it as regrettable that even at this final conference before the election, party members are being left in the dark as to how all of these plans are going to be funded.

The party is currently saying we want a 60:40 split between cuts and tax increases that is tax rises of 30bn, the briefing reads. It is difficult to see how that can be funded without the basic income tax rate or VAT going up. And that is before the increases in spending to which the party is already committed.

When asked about the comments at a press conference on Monday, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said he had not heard of Liberal Reform, despite having written a forward to a major publication by the group in September 2013.

He said the party had a very democratic way of deciding policy, which set it apart from the slightly more North Korean approach taken by the other parties.

Clegg said: I sat and participated all day on Saturday in the final meeting of the Liberal Democrat federal policy committee a large group of federal Liberal Democrats elected to that body and elected to decide on behalf of the party what should go in our manifesto, which will then be subject to a vote this weekend.

So I dont know who you are alluding to, but the notion that somehow that is not done in an open, deliberate and consultative democratic manner is confounded by our meticulous adherence to the democratic ways we decide these things.

Members of the three Lib Dem decision making committees are elected by its members, and party members who have been elected as local representatives then vote on the partys policies at conferences.

Alan Muhammed, co-chair of Liberal Reform, said: Our understanding is that some of the party committees have seen some costings relating to the manifesto proposals. However, many of those committees operate largely in secret and there seem to be no plans to give access to the figures to the wider membership.

See more here:
Liberal Democrat members 'left in the dark' about party's spending plans