Following a dismal performance in the local and European elections Nick Clegg scored a morale-boosting victory over Ed Miliband by maintaining his dignity when confronted by a bacon sandwich.

The UK deputy Prime Minister managed to avoid the Labour leader's fate as he tucked into his breakfast live on air during an interview which was streamed on the internet for viewers to see him take on the challenge.

Unlike Mr Miliband, whose efforts to eat a bacon butty on the campaign trail led to a series of unflattering pictures and online mockery, the Deputy Prime Minister appeared to cope with the challenge - although he then went on to talk with his mouth full as the LBC radio interview continued.

Host Nick Ferrari presented the sandwich to the embattled Lib Dem leader at the end of his Call Clegg phone-in show.

Mr Clegg, who agreed to eat a single bite of the sandwich on air, opted for the risky option of smothering the bacon in tomato ketchup.

He said "surely I can get away with it on radio" before being reminded that the event would be caught on camera.

"This is very unfair, because I don't think anyone looks very elegant," he said. "I thought it was a bit unfair on poor Ed Miliband."

After taking a mouthful he mumbled "very good" and was told by Ferrari: "That is how to eat a bacon sandwich, no doubt about it."

Mr Clegg, who has faced a plot to oust him following disastrous elections which saw the party reduced to a single MEP, joked that the sandwich provided him with the robust constitution needed for politics.

"I get it from the bacon sandwich," he said.

Mr Miliband, who struggled with a sandwich at New Covent Garden market in London in the run-up to last week's elections, played down the importance of the blow to his image.

In an interview with Buzzfeed he told of meeting someone who was contemplating "ending it all" because his low wages could not support his family.

"Suddenly bacon sandwiches look slightly beside the point," Mr Miliband said.