Charles Kennedy has called on politicians to scrap the language of the "crackdown" in favour of using less emotive terms for problems such as crime.

In the wake of the row surrounding William Hague's comments on race relations, Kennedy condemned the "nasty" political debate over "crackdowns" on crime.

His comments, which come in an exclusive interview with epolitix.com, contrast Lib Dem policy with the other parties. He said: "We said that we would put money into front line community policing and that is quite different to what the other two recommend. Now is that a crack down on crime? No it's not. A crack down is a nasty horrible political phrase that politicians use when they're out of ideas."

Kennedy said he believed the debate on crime was too "macho". "There's not enough discussion about the restoration of justice," he said. "How for instance do you release a prisoner as a better human being rather than simply educating that person to be an even better criminal."

The Lib Dem leader said he that an alternative to prison should be found for those found guilty of committing minor offences. "There are far too many people for example who are in prison where the problem is drugs or petty theft or crime of a lesser nature - not damage to an individual, not attacking people, not murdering people," he said.

Instead he called for the government to tackle the problem of offending rather than simply lock-up those who carry out minor crimes. "There are too many at the other end of the spectrum who would be better off in some kind of rehabilitative rather than custodial set up," he said.