Childcare reforms would have cost more for families, claims Nick Clegg Mr Clegg said: "What we said was we would consult people on this idea and then we would react to how people responded What I said very explicitly within Government is that you can only decide on this when we've heard the responses from people who frankly know better than any politician what it's like to look after four, five, six two-year-old toddlers." He added: "The response, not just from nurseries, but overwhelmingly from parent groups was they thought this was a bad idea. They thought it was a bad idea for a number of reasons but the one I focused on...was the claim initially made that it would somehow reduce the weekly childcare bill for families. I, like everyone desperately want to do whatever I can to bring childcare costs down. What came back was a really clear answer that there was no real evidence that this would reduce childcare costs. In fact at one nursery after another that I visited, they said, "To be honest Mr Clegg," they would say to me privately, "It might well drive costs up because we're going to have to spend more money on more higher-qualified [staff]'." The Tories have reacted furiously to Mr Clegg's intervention. A Number 10 source said: "It is not a good way to behave - it's best to announce things when they have been agreed."