One in three LibDem activists feel Nick Clegg is failing to make an impact as leader, poll finds

One in three Liberal Democrat activists believes Nick Clegg has failed to make an impact since he became leader.

And more than a quarter believe the party is 'on the wrong track' since it supposedly began shifting to the Right, according to a poll.

The survey's findings will dismay Mr Clegg as he prepares to lead the LibDems into their first annual conference since he took over last December.

It will also spark concerns among his team that he has failed to win over dyed-in-the-wool activists who are wary of him coaxing the party onto the political centre-ground.

And it reflects disappointment that Mr Clegg has failed to capitalise on public anger at Gordon Brown as households struggle to cope with the economic downturn and soaring food, fuel and mortgage costs.

The party is currently trailing at about 18 per cent in the polls.

The results of the survey made grim reading for the leader as he used an interview before the LibDems rally begins in Bournemouth tomorrow SAT to promise deep tax cuts for millions of Britons.

Some 33 per cent of activists said they were disappointed by Mr Clegg's performance since he took over from ex-leader Sir Menzies Campbell in December last year.

And almost 1 in 10 described his time at the helm as 'very ineffective'.

Of those grassroots supporters who expressed an opinion to the Liberal Democrat Voice website's members-only survey, 31.7 per cent felt the party was 'on the wrong track'.

Many are concerned about Mr Clegg's willing to break with tradition by making the LibDems a tax-cutting party and allowing the private sector to have a hand in schools, hospitals and welfare.

He is seeking to reassure Middle England voters that the LibDems are no longer out of step with their aspirations.

The survey, published today, delivered a third blow by revealing that not one of the 46.9 per cent who said they voted for Chris Huhne in last year's knife-edge leadership regretted doing so.

Mr Clegg won the ballot by fewer than 600 votes after at one point appearing a shoo-in.

Stephen Tall, the commissioning editor of LibDem Voice, said: 'In total, then, 64.5 per cent of party members in the survey are satisfied with Nick's performance, compared with 33.4 per cent who are not.

'Given the tendency of party members to be critical – and the more so, it seems, if they are hooked-up to the internet – Nick can probably feel pretty relaxed about this result.'

In a pre-conference interview today, Mr Clegg said nine out of ten people would benefit from LibDem proposals to cut taxes.

He pledged to make £20billion of cuts for low and middle-income earners by a huge hike in green taxes, a crackdown on the super rich and a closure of pension pot loopholes.

Council tax would be replaced with a 4p-in-the-pound local income tax, which would be offset by cutting the basic rate of income tax from 20p to 16p.

And he promised to make another £20billion of 'savings' in Whitehall - 3 per cent of its entire budget - by discarding expensive NHS computer systems and scrapping controversial ID cards.

Mr Clegg's bid to dump his party's tax-and-spend image faces its first true test in Bournemouth when the conference votes on the plans.

He said: 'Those people who would be paying more would be a minority of taxpayers at the top.

'We are talking about the vast, vast majority of British taxpayers, say 80 to 90 per cent, who would do better out of our proposals.'

Challenged that his performance in the Commons during Prime Minister's Questions had been widely considered to be poor, he said: 'I'm in an unusual position in the sense that unlike David Cameron and Gordon Brown, I have only two questions, Cameron has got six, and he has got a nice prop which he can lean on.

'I have got 500 grown men and women yelling at me.'