Clegg oversaw the Liberal Democrats sustain major losses in the May 7 general election, with their share of parliament seats reduced from 56 to eight. He resigned shortly after the election results were declared.
"If I believe – and I am very close to thinking it – I am the problem and not the solution, I have to stand to one side," The Guardian quotes Clegg as telling one of his colleagues at the time.
The newspaper said Clegg had consulted a number of senior colleagues on whether he impeded rather than advanced the Liberal Democrats’ message.
The Guardian’s investigation into the losses the party has sustained over the past year has also found a series of blows to Clegg’s leadership, including a failed party coup attempt and private document leaks.
According to the newspaper, party officials attribute their defeat in last month’s general election to voters backing Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party out of fear that the Labour Party may have joined forces with the Scottish National Party. Labour was thought to be the Conservatives' biggest challenger ahead of the vote.
"We were in the middle of the road without any distinction, so we had no visibility jacket on, no one could see us, so we really did get run over," former cabinet minister Ed Davey told the publication.
The LibDems gained 23 percent of the vote in the 2010 general election, forming a ruling coalition with Conservatives after none of the parties secured a majority. Clegg, who took over party leadership in 2007, served a five-year term as Deputy Prime Minister.
