Liberal Democrat leadership rivals Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne have conceded that the differences between them are more to do with style and personality, than any disagreement over policy.

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr show, Clegg said the public should be "surprised that our similarities far outweigh our differences".

The current home affairs spokesman suggested he would be best placed to reach out to voters who hold liberal values but have previously not backed the Lib Dems.

"What this is about is how we can reach the millions of people who I am sincerely convinced share our values of fairness and internationalism," Clegg said.

"I wouldn't be sitting on this sofa with you if I didn't feel I had qualities which mean I can espouse and exemplify these policies and then reach out to people and try to bring people to our cause who presently are either not voting for us or not voting at all."

Clegg said he would "speak in a direct, plain-speaking way to people, to represent the great cities of the north but also appeal to rural and suburban parts of the south, to try to create a sense of dynamism and ambition in politics".

Shrugging off comparisons between himself and Conservative leader David Cameron, Clegg said he was "appalled" by the "soulless... heartless and desperate" Tory vision which allowed Margaret Thatcher to say there was no such thing as society and Cameron to say Britain was sinking into anarchy.

He indicated he would not introduce a dramatic shift from the policy platform developed under Sir Menzies Campbell, saying: "I think our policies are pretty good. I think it is how we express the policies in a way that's relevant to people."

Huhne agreed that the coming leadership election would not present Lib Dem members with a clear choice between divergent policy agendas.

"Obviously, party members have to make a decision on who is going to be best to present the case on which Nick and I, not surprisingly, fundamentally agree on most of the key elements," he said.

With the UK likely to be entering a volatile period economically, Huhne suggested that his experience as a financial journalist and City consultant made him "very comfortable" with the issues the country will face.

"Obviously, if you look at our CVs, we have had slightly different experiences," he said. "I am 13 years older and have more grey hair and there is no getting round that fact."

Huhne said the Liberal Democrats had a chance to take votes off both the Tories and Labour by positioning themselves as "the real radicals" as the other two parties squabbled over a narrow political territory in the centre ground.

"What we are seeing between the Tory party and the Labour Party is this Gadarene rush to adopt the same policy positions and to shadow each other," he said.

"It's almost like a Premiership football game of man-marking. It's ridiculous, because there has got to be some sense of real difference in our politics.

"We are the real radicals. We are not just about changing the government, we are about changing the whole system and making sure that people are reconnected into the political system at the grassroots, giving power back to people."