Pottery and amateur dramatics were the order of the day when the deputy prime minister went back to college.

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All business: The Liberal Democrats helped RACC with funding

Nick Clegg visited Richmond Adult Community College (RACC) with Business Secretary Vince Cable on Tuesday, April 21, to see how a share of £20m benefits adult learners with mental health problems.

The community learning mental health funding, administered by the Skills Funding Agency, committed to giving out the money in the next two years to help up to 80,000 learners as part of their recovery, with RACC one of those benefited.

After meeting staff at the college, Mr Clegg and Mr Cable were taken to the theatre to see performing arts students in action before taking to the stage themselves.

The Liberal Democrat politicians then enjoyed a relaxing pottery session and painted their party’s logo in its signature colour before hearing stories of how courses at the college benefit those with mental health problems.

Mr Clegg said: "I was keen to visit because Vince has a long standing commitment to making sure people with mental health problems have access to wonderful education facilities like this.

"It is a huge tribute to Vince that he has brought this commitment to help those with mental health problems and he has brought it in to his own community through the cabinet."

Mr Cable, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Twickenham, said the funding was a "good record of what the Liberal Democrats can do in Government."

He added: "12,000 people in the borough will make use of this and the funding is an enormous opportunity for the people who use it [the college]."

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Mr Clegg also paid tribute to the college, which offers courses in partnership with Richmond Borough Mind.

He said: "The most impressive thing was a woman who has long standing mental health issues and she has been working with Mind and they said coming here has done more to boost her confidence than anything that has helped her in the past. And that was just one story."

Gabe Flint, principal of RACC, said the visit helped give recognition to the importance of adult learning within the community.

She said: "This funding gives us the chance to build partnerships so we can help to create programmes. We have a lot of experience in learning but we don’t necessarily know what the right things are for certain groups."

Turning his attention to the general election and the party’s hopes for the borough, Mr Clegg said: "Vince is such a natural national figure and an incredibly hard working local MP and that is why he is as popular as he is.

"The alternative is to have a Conservative MP, part of a hapless Tory party dancing to the tune of Nigel Farage.

"What Vince offers is the experience and also represents the party who wants to keep the country sustainably strong.

"I think good old fashioned working hard and representing the community, which is what Robin Meltzer would do [for Richmond Park], is worth much more."

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