Danny Alexander surprised the press gallery this afternoon by informing assembled journalists that he had more than "red hair" in common with former News International boss Rebekah Brooks.

"I have also had problems with text messages from a senior member of the government," he revealed.

"But mine come from the DPM rather than the PM.

"The first few months of our time in office, I thought we were getting really stressed out because every text he sent me started with the letters 'OMG'.

"But it turns out that this is code in the Clegg household for 'On Miriam's Guidance'."

His joke comes after Brooks revealed that David Cameron would sign texts to her off with the word 'LOL', which he took to mean 'lots of love' rather than 'laugh out loud'.

The Scottish MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey had some strong words for his SNP rivals. "The more the SNP talk about independence the less attractive they seem," he said. 

Alexander quoted a voter on the doorstep who informed him: "I've voted SNP all my life but all this stuff about independence is starting to scare me."

Talking of scary, Alexander tried to talk tough on the economy and the spiralling eurozone crisis.

"Resolving the eurozone crisis is the thing that will do the most help to the British economy," he told journalists at the press gallery lunch.

"We have a huge national interest in these issues being resolved. There is clearly a great deal of uncertainty at the moment… We're not dealing with the deficit in this country because the Germans told us to."

Tags: Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander MP, Press gallery lunch