Cleggit crunch strikes: I'm feeling the pinch insists £61,000 LibDem leader with two expensive homes

So eyebrows were raised on Friday when Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg claimed he was latest victim of the credit crunch.

In an extraordinary outburst, he moaned that he is 'mortgaged up to the gills'.

'Mortgaged to the gills': Nick Clegg and his wife Miriam say they are feeling the pinch and have started shopping at Sainsbury's instead of the more upmarket Ocado

He has taken the painful decision of switching his weekly shop from upmarket Ocado to Sainsbury's in a bid to watch the pennies.

His comments are sure to astonish ordinary hard-working families who are struggling with soaring energy, food and housing bills. 

The MP, who was educated at the exclusive £9,000-a-term Westminster School, said he and his family have been hit by the slump in the housing market. 

He spoke of the difficulty of finding a new mortgage after his original fixed-rate deal expired last year.

He said: 'Without going into the gory details of our family finances, we are mortgaged up to the gills like a lot of other people. pretty big,' he said.

He also admitted cutting back on heating his home and swopping his Rover for the train and an electric scooter.

'I had a two-year, fixed-rate deal which ran out, and it has been very painful to move on to a different one  -  like millions of other people.'

Mr Clegg and his wife Miriam, who have two young sons, said that they had tightened their belts because they were feeling the pain of the economic downturn.

He said they had 'gravitated' away from Ocado, which sells Waitrose food online, to Sainsbury's. 'I have to say, the price difference is pretty big,' he said.

He said: 'I hardly drive a car any more. We heat the house less, turn the heating down.'

The Cleggs own a £1.3million house in South-West London and a cottage in a well-heeled suburb of his constituency in Sheffield.

But unlike most folk lucky enough to have two homes, Mr Clegg can claim the cost of one using taxpayer-funded expenses.

In 2006-2007, the last year for which figures are available, he claimed £22,050 of his Additional Costs Allowance towards buying and running the South Yorkshire property.

Mr Clegg conceded that he and his Spanish-born wife, a full-time lawyer, had not suffered the same depths of financial hardship as many other families, but he insisted they are feeling the pinch.

He said: 'I'm much luckier than other people. My wife and I are not really struggling to put food on the family supper table. My wife works and I work, so we have two incomes.

'We are very lucky, but we need every penny of those two incomes. If we do, I can't imagine what it is like for the many millions of British families who aren't as lucky as we are.'

A source close to Mr Clegg insisted he was not claiming financial-hardship, adding: 'He is not saying- 'I feel your pain'.

'He is saying, if times are slightly tougher for him, they must be huge for other people who are less well off.'

But Labour MP John Spellar said: 'Even by London prices, a £1.3million house is expensive. It sounds like he is desperately trying to show that he and his party are in touch with the common man, and failing miserably.'