Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has insisted his party will recover from its disastrous performance at this year's Scottish Parliament.

The Deputy Minister praised the performance of new Scottish leader Willie Rennie, calling him the most effective challenger to Alex Salmond in Holyrood.

The Lib Dems were the biggest casualties of May's Scottish general election, losing 12 of the 17 seats they previously held and seeing their share of the vote shrink to less than 8%.

Speaking at his party's annual conference in Birmingham, Mr Clegg told STV News: "There's a great, great future for Scotland as a strong nation within a strong United Kingdom.

"I think we're the only party that brings together an ability to sort out, through difficult decisions, the problems we have in the economy, but also promote, through better pensions, more apprenticeships and fairer taxes, a fair society at the same time."

Describing Mr Rennie, he said: "I think he's really striking the right note. My own view, looking at it from south of the Border, is that he is challenging Alex Salmond more effectively now than any othe politician in Holyrood."