Ofcom had received more than 100 complaints that a transmission had been interfering with the commercial broadcaster LBC and the regulator was out to "put them out of business".

BBC: The pirates' view of pirate radio

The deputy prime minister told his weekly LBC radio phone-in that "what people have dubbed the snooper's charter" was "not going to happen".

BBC: A person using a computer

Mr Clegg, who was speaking on the first of his weekly radio phone-ins on LBC, said it was up to the UK to decide how it handles its relationship with Europe, but the Americans were entitled to express their views.

BBC: Nick Clegg: UK 'valuable' to US partly because of EU