Cameron accused of misleading public over debt

Labour's Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Chris Leslie, has accused the Prime Minister, David Cameron of misleading the public over the level of the national debt. The comments came following on from a letter from the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir Andrew Dilnot to Chris Leslie. 

Mr Leslie commenting said: "These repeated attempts to mislead people about the Government's failure to keep their promise that the national debt would be falling are unacceptable. For David Cameron to have been chastised once on this was bad enough. But to be reprimanded yet again shows this goes beyond error or mistake. We can only conclude that there is a deliberate attempt by David Cameron's Government to mislead the public about their true failures on the national debt.

Text of the letter from Andrew Dilnot to Chris Leslie

"Dear Mr Leslie

PUBLIC SECTOR FINANCES STATISTICS – DEBT AND DEFICIT

Thank you for your letter dated 1 October 2014 regarding the statement made by the Prime
Minister during his speech to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham in which he
said that the country “is paying down its debts”.

As you note in your letter, this is a similar matter to that about which I replied to your
predecessor, Rachel Reeves MP, in February 2013.1 As I said in that letter, it is clearly
important for all parties to public debate in this area to understand the relevant statistical
definitions and to distinguish changes in the level of debt outstanding from changes in
borrowing per period, and to reflect these in their communication of the statistical trends
involved.

Public sector net debt is a measure of how much the UK public sector owes at a given time.
Public sector net borrowing is the difference between total accrued receipts and total accrued
(current and capital) expenditure over a specified period; the measure of net borrowing is
frequently used by commentators to summarise the extent of any public sector ‘deficit’.

The latest National Statistics on Public Sector Finances, published by the Office for National
Statistics on 30 September 2014, show that Public Sector Net Debt (excluding public sector
banks) as at the end of June 2010 was estimated to be £997.4 billion (equivalent to 64.0 per
cent of Gross Domestic Product) and £1,432.3 billion at the end of August 2014 (79.1 per
cent of GDP), an estimated increase of £434.9 billion over the period. Public Sector Net
Borrowing (excluding public sector banks) was estimated to be £133.9 billion in the 2010/11
financial year and £99.3 billion in 2013/14, an estimated fall of £34.7 billion. The charts
overleaf show the trends in more detail.

I hope that this letter sets out the Authority’s position clearly.

Yours sincerely,

Sir Andrew Dilnot CBE"

Julian Huppert's letter to the Home Secretary

Following a speech by the Home Secretary Theresa May referencing the Communications Data Bill, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on Home Affairs, Justice and Equalities Julian Huppert has sent the letter below to Theresa May: 

Dear Theresa, 

We disagree on the Communications Data Bill.

The Liberal Democrat position is clear: we do not think that the proposal to store a record of every citizen's internet browsing for 12 months is compatible with our basic civil liberties. We also do not think it is right to force UK companies to keep track of everything people do on Google, Facebook or other websites. You appear determined to push ahead with the scheme at all costs, regardless of widespread public concern. I'm more than happy to continue to have that debate as we approach the general election. 

But there are limits. I was utterly dismayed by the suggestion in your conference speech today that my party has put children's lives at risk. 

That is an extraordinary claim, and one which must be backed with compelling evidence. Instead, you cited figures from the National Crime Agency which were entirely misleading. You said:

"Over a six-month period, the National Crime Agency estimates that it had to drop at least twenty cases as a result of missing communications data. Thirteen of these were threat-to-life cases, in which a child was judged to be at risk of imminent harm [...] The solution to this crisis of national security was the Communications Data Bill. But two years ago, it was torpedoed by the Liberal Democrats."

The National Crime Agency cases you cite were, I understand, unable to proceed because it was not possible to connect the IP address used for the communication to a particular device. 'IP matching' is a genuine problem, and as you know, Liberal Democrats have supported and continue to support action to solve it. Following our vetoing of the Communications Data Bill, we supported including proposals to resolve this problem in the Queen's Speech. 

Since then, nothing has happened. No such proposals have been brought forward by your department.

Responsibility for the lack of data in the cases you cite, and the risk thereby caused to individuals, including children, therefore lies exclusively at your door. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the Liberal Democrats. 

I realise that your conference speeches are not subject to the same levels of accuracy as statements in the House of Commons, but nonetheless I would expect you to issue a public correction and an apology at the earliest opportunity.

Yours,

Julian

Conservative Voters Would Prefer Coalition With The Liberal Democrats Over a Minority Tory Government

Conservative voters would rather a repeat of the current Tory-Lib Dem coalition after 2015 than see the party try and go it alone as a minority government.

A Survation survey for The Huffington Post, published on today, found that in the event of a hung parliament a second Conservative-Lib Dem deal was preferred by Tory voters to one party minority rule by a margin of 53% to 37%.

Many also would rather David Cameron reject a second power sharing agreement and go it alone should he win more seats than Ed Miliband, but fall short of an overall majority.

The poll found that Labour voters were divided on the same question, with 40% preferring a Lib-Lab coalition and 41% preferring Miliband try and lead a minority Labour government.

The survey found that overall voters were not sold on coalitions. When asked, 39% of all those asked said they would choose a minority government. The poll revealed 21% would choose a Con-Lib Dem coalition, 19% would pick a Lib-Lab deal and 22% did not know.

Osborne's pay cuts leading to strikes next month

George Osborne's commitment to cutting public sector pay, confirmed in his Conservative party conference speech, has sparked a fresh wave of strike action, the Public and Commercial Services union says.

Up to a quarter of a million civil servants will be on strike on Wednesday 15 October, co-ordinated with other public sector walkouts that week. The strikes come ahead of the TUC's 'Britain Needs a Pay Rise' demonstrations in London and Glasgow on Saturday 18 October. Public servants' wages were frozen for two years after 2010 and subsequently capped at 1%. Added to the increase in monthly pension contributions and the effects of inflation, this means many civil servants will have suffered a 20% cut in their incomes by next year.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "George Osborne's government, propped up by the Lib Dems, has slashed the living standards of public servants while the super rich have been rewarded with tax cuts. Days after voting for air strikes on Iraq likely to cost billions of pounds, politicians of all parties continue to peddle the myth that there is not enough money around to pay civil servants, nurses or teachers."

George Osborne: Choose the future

In his conference speech today, George Osborne set out the choice at the next election between David Cameron and the Conservatives who have answers to the big questions about Britain's future, or Ed Miliband and the Labour Party who would repeat the mistakes of the past.

George Osborne said: "I believe it is perfectly possible for Britain to be the most prosperous major country on earth. The most prosperous, the most dynamic, the most creative. But only if we, in our generation, provide the big answers to the big questions. Only if we choose the future not the past."

He also set out the next steps in the Conservatives' plan to eliminate the deficit and run a surplus in the next parliament:

• The Conservatives will freeze working age benefits from April 2016 for two years. This will save £3.2 billion a year by 2017/18. Disability, carer and pensioner benefits are excluded, as are several smaller benefits such as statutory maternity pay.

George Osborne said: "Working age benefits in Britain will have to be frozen for two years. This is the choice Britain needs to take to protect our economic stability and to secure a better future. The fairest way to reduce welfare bills is to make sure that benefits are not rising faster than the wages of the taxpayers who are paying for them. For we will provide a welfare system that is fair to those who need it, and fair to those who pay for it too."

• In the Autumn Statement the Treasury will end abuse by multinationals who divert profits offshore in order to avoid corporation tax. This will raise hundreds of millions of pounds as part of an anti-avoidance package raising billions of pounds over the next Parliament. This change will mainly affect multinationals using artificial arrangements to route profits to tax havens that would otherwise have been taxed in the UK. New anti-avoidance measures will dramatically reduce the benefits from complex arrangements such as the so-called "double Irish" used by some large multinationals, particularly in the technology sector. This measure comes after the progress made at the G20 and the OECD by the international "Base Erosion and Profit Shifting" (BEPS) project in which the UK has played a leading role.

George Osborne said: "While we offer some of the lowest business taxes in the world, we expect those taxes to be paid - not avoided. Some technology companies go to extraordinary lengths to pay little or no tax here. If you abuse our tax system, you abuse the trust of the British people. And my message to those companies is clear: we will put a stop to it. Low taxes, but low taxes that are paid. Part of our effort to reduce our deficit. For our choice is that we are all in this together."

The Chancellor also confirmed that:

• This Government will abolish the punitive 55 per cent tax on death that is charged when people pass on a pension pot. The measure will apply to all payments made from April 2015, and means that people who have worked hard and saved all their lives will be able to pass on their hard-earned pension pot tax-free.
• The Conservatives will abolish long term youth unemployment. We will deliver three million apprenticeships over the next Parliament. On top of that, if a young person has been unemployed for six months they will have to take an apprenticeship, training, or work for their benefits. Our plans will give hundreds of thousands of young people the opportunity of a better, more secure future. And we will pay for it by cutting the benefit cap and stopping most young people from claiming Housing Benefit.

Chris Leslie MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, commenting on George Osborne’s speech to the Conservative Party Annual Conference, said: "Having failed to balance the books in this Parliament George Osborne has made his choice. He is choosing to give the richest one per cent a £3 billion-a-year tax cut and opposing a mansion tax while cutting tax credits which make work pay for millions of striving families. While working people have seen their wages fall by £1600 a year since 2010, the Tories have once again shown they are the party of a privileged few at the top."

Talking about Labour's plans, Mr Leslie commented: "Labour will balance the books as soon as possible in the next Parliament, but we will do so in a fairer way. We will reverse the Tory tax cut for millionaires, stop paying the winter fuel allowance to the richest five per cent of pensioners and cap child benefit rises at one per cent for two years."

Labour and the Tories clash over how to deal with the long term unemployed

People who are out of work for three or more years will be required to work full-time on community projects to receive state unemployment payments, the Chancellor George Osborne will announce on today. The proposal is the latest attempt by the Coalition government to reform the benefits system, which David Cameron says does not provide enough incentives for people to go out to work. It is speculated that this is merely a bid to woo traditional conservative voters ahead of the 2015 general election. Because although the Tories are starting to close the gap in the opinion polls with Labour, they are threatened on their right flank by the anti-immigration, anti-European Union United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).

From April, the long-term unemployed will be forced to either do 30 hours a week of community work; such as picking up litter, making food for the elderly, working for charity or attend a jobcentre every day. People who break the rules once will lose four weeks benefit worth about £230, while a second infringement could cost them three months, which is £690. The so-called "Help to Work" scheme will be open to people who have failed to find a job through the government's main work programme, a two-year process which provides support, training and work experience.

Britain is slowly emerging from a deep recession and unemployment is falling, reaching 7.7 percent in May to July this year, but long-term unemployment remains stubbornly high. Official figures from the same period reveal that 469,000 people have been out of work for more than two years, up 27,000 from a year earlier. 

"For the first time, all long-term unemployed people who are capable of work will be required to do something in return for their benefits to help them find work," Mr Osborne will announce. "And for those with underlying problems, like drug addiction and illiteracy, there will be an intensive regime of help." He will also say "No one will be ignored or left without help. But no one will get something for nothing." The Tories claim the economic recovery is a vindication of their austerity programme, which remains unpopular and drew fifty thousand* trade unionists out in protest in Manchester on Sunday. But Mr Osborne will insist that he is not complacent, saying: "This battle to turn around Britain it is not even close to being over."

Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Reeves, responding to George Osborne's plans for the Help to Work scheme, said: "It's taken three wasted years of rising long-term unemployment and a failed Work Programme to come up with this new scheme. But this policy is not as ambitious as Labour's compulsory jobs guarantee, which would ensure there is a paid job for every young person out of work for over 12 months and every adult unemployed for more than 2 years."

Continuing Ms Reeves commented: "With Labour's plans we would work with employers to ensure there are jobs for young people and the long term unemployed - which they would have to take up or lose benefits. Under the Tory scheme people would still be allowed to languish on the dole for years on end without having a proper job. After just two days of their Conference, the Tories have made £1 billion of unfunded spending commitments. But the Tories still haven't set out how they will help most working people, who are on average £1500 worse off since David Cameron came to office, with the cost of living crisis."

Concluding Ms Reeves said: "By pressing ahead with a tax cut for millionaires and opposing the measures we announced last week to freeze energy prices and expand free childcare for working parents, the Tories have shown just how out of touch they are."

*estimate from Greater Manchester Police.

Leading Tory figures warn that the Conservative Party is 'dying'

In the lead-up to Conservative Party conference the Bow Group, Britain's oldest Conservative think-tank, has warned that the Conservative Party is facing an existential crisis. In its conference edition of Crossbow magazine entitled "Party Shrugged: How the Conservative Party lost its base". Several leading members of the Conservative Party including David Davis, Sir Edward Leigh, Toby Young and Paul Goodman, have come together to call for urgent action to avert the crisis of a rapidly decreasing membership and voter base.

Precise figures remain unclear, but this month Conservative Party central office confirmed that Party membership has halved since David Cameron became leader in 2005, with an average member age of 68. At the current rate of attrition UKIP would overtake membership of the Conservative Party in 5 years time.

Ben Harris Quinney, Chairman: The Bow Group, Director: Conservative Grassroots: "The nature of the modern Conservative Party Conference reflects its crisis in willing support, Conference is now populated by lobbyists, not members. It offers no freedom and no democratic rights to a membership who barely recognise or connect with what the Party has now become.

We are often warned by the current Conservative Party leadership of the dire socialist republic that awaits us if Ed Milliband succeeds Cameron as Prime Minister in 2015, but the last 3 years have proven that there really is no discernible difference, at least to the general public, between any of the major political parties. It is this failure that underpins the results we are now seeing: membership of all Parliamentary parties at rock bottom, confidence in all major party leaders at a historic low: a citizenry broadly apathetic to politics as a whole.

The British public and the few remaining Party members will only tolerate the status quo for so long. The question for the next 25 years of the British political party is not funding, be it state, union or private donor, it is existence itself."

The Rt Hon David Davis MP: "We need to do better as a party at having a two way conversation between the grassroots membership on the one hand and the leadership and professional management of the party on the other. The party conference shows just how much this conversation has broken down. Members no longer have the opportunity to interact and make speeches in the main conference hall. Whereas conference used to be an exciting occasion that brought us together and reinforced that sense of the Conservative family, it is now a much more tame affair with few genuine opportunities for engagement beyond the fringe meetings."

Sir Edward Leigh MP: "The flight of some core Tory voters to UKIP is not just about Europe. There is a feeling of alienation from politics that is compounded when, for example, the Government seeks to rush through a programme of drastic radical social change like same-sex civil marriage. Such an assault on one of the fundamental institutions of society is precisely the kind of action many voters believe the Conservative party was designed to prevent and frustrate. To see such policies enacted under our own government leaves many voters wondering why they bother, and questioning the decades of commitment they’ve made to the organisation."

Paul Goodman, Editor Conservative Home: "With big business at ease with the new corporatism and the politically correct codes that gove n it, the old alliances which once made the Conservatives the natural party of government broke down. We haven't won an election for over 20 years. At a Parliamentary level, we scarcely exist in Scotland. Our condition is little better in the urban North and Midlands, in which we hold only 20 out of 124 urban seats. Vote distribution makes winning a majority almost impossible.

In short, what George Osborne once called uber-modernisation, with its doctrine of taking on one's own supporters, is exhausted. What's left is frighteningly close to being an empty shell. I am a member of the Party. On paper, this should mean that I have some say in its profile and policies. In practice, it means that I pay a minimum of £25, and in return receive letters from Cameron asking for more money. I have no formal say in policy-making. Party Conference attendance is expensive: indeed, conference is now a trade fair for lobby groups"

Sarah Jane~Sewell, youngest member of the Conservative Future Board: "For the past sixty years, party membership has been falling at a record rate. For the Conservative Party, membership has fallen by almost 2.5 million, leaving us with little more than 134,000 members. It is very easy to become complacent when in government and there exists a tendency to presume that every member will come out and give their all campaigning."

The Bow Group recommends several solutions to the current crisis of membership in the Conservative Party in "Party Shrugged":

• A programme to "unite the right", in an electoral pact with UKIP
• The ability for local associations to select candidates via open primary, without central party interference
• A more democratic and engaging party conference, allowing members to put forward and vote on policies
• A lower cost conference
• A membership that is more effectively "digitally engaged", facilitating remote engagement of members regardless of association size

Toby Young, Conservative PPC, author and journalist: "The most common objection to a CONUKIP pact is that neither David Cameron nor Nigel Farage will touch it, but a pact doesn’t need to be endorsed by the leaders of either party to work." 

The Bow Group & Conservative Grassroots will release a major paper on freedom and democracy in the Conservative Party in October.

Full text of David Cameron's speech to the Conservative party conference in Birmingham:

"In May 2010, this party stood on the threshold of power for the first time in more than a decade. We knew then that it was not just the ordinary duties of office that we were assuming. We were entering into Government at a grave moment in the modern history of Britain.

At a time when people felt uncertainty, even fear. Here was the challenge: To make an insolvent nation solvent again. To set our country back on the path to prosperity that all can share in. To bring home our troops from danger while keeping our citizens safe from terror. To mend a broken society.

Two and a half years later of course I can't tell you that all is well, but I can say this: Britain is on the right track.

As Prime Minister it has fallen to me to say some hard things and to help our country face some hard truths. All of my adult life, whatever the difficulties, the British people have at least been confident about one thing. We have thought we can pay our way.

That we can earn our living as a major industrial country...…and we will always remain one.

It has fallen to us to say - we cannot assume that any longer.

Unless we act, unless we take difficult, painful decisions, unless we show determination and imagination, Britain may not be in the future what it has been in the past.

Because the truth is this. We are in a global race today. And that means an hour of reckoning for countries like ours. Sink or swim. Do or decline.

To take office at such a moment is a duty and an honour…

…and we will rise to the challenge.

Today I’m going to set out a serious argument to this country about how we do that. How we compete and thrive in this world…

…how we can make sure in this century, like the ones before, Britain is on the rise.

Nothing matters more.

Every battle we fight, every plan we make, every decision we take is to achieve that end…

…Britain on the rise.

BRITAIN CAN DELIVER

Though the challenge before us is daunting, I have confidence in our country. Why? Because Britain can deliver. We can do big things.

We saw it this summer. The Jubilee, the Olympics, the Paralympics…

…the best country in the world…

…and let’s say it: with our Queen, the finest Head of State on earth.

I was trying to think of my favourite moment. Was it telling President Hollande that no, we hadn’t cheated at the cycling, we didn’t have rounder wheels, it was just that we peddled faster than the French?

No… for me it was seeing that young woman who swam her heart out for years…

…nine training sessions a week, two hours a time.

My best moment was putting that gold medal around the neck of Ellie Simmonds. And I am so grateful for what all those Paralympians did.

When I used to push my son Ivan around in his wheelchair, I always thought that some people saw the wheelchair, not the boy.

Today more people would see the boy and not the wheelchair – and that’s because of what happened here this summer.

And the Olympics showed us something else. Whether our athletes were English, Scottish, Welsh or from Northern Ireland …they draped themselves in one flag.

Now, there’s one person who didn’t like that …and he’s called Alex Salmond.

I’m going to see him on Monday to sort that referendum on independence by the end of 2014. There are many things I want this coalition to achieve but what could matter more than saving our United Kingdom …let’s say it: we’re better together and we’ll rise together – so let’s fight that referendum with everything we’ve got.

There are so many people to thank for this summer. Those that won the bid, those that built the stadia, that ran the Games …and of course: the man who put a smile on our faces…

…the zinger on the zip-wire…

…the Conservative Mayor of London: our Boris Johnson.

And those Games-Makers. You know, I’ve spent three years trying to explain the Big Society …they did it beautifully in just three weeks.

There is another group of people who stepped into the breach this summer – and we in this party never forget them. Our armed forces have been on the ground in Afghanistan for over ten years now. 433 men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice. Just last weekend there was a memorial service for one of the fallen, and the eulogy said this:

“All that they had they gave. All that they might have had. All that they had ever been. All that they might ever have become.”

For all those who serve, and their families, I repeat the commitment I made when this Government came to office. By the end of 2014, all UK combat operations in Afghanistan will have come to an end. Nearly all our troops will be home – their country proud, their duty done …and let everyone in this hall stand and show how profoundly grateful we are for everything they do.

CONSERVATIVES CAN DELIVER

To meet the challenges our country faces, we must have confidence in ourselves… confidence as a party. We’ve been in office two and a half years now – and we’ve done some big, life-changing things.

Just ask Clive Stone, who you saw in a film earlier. I met him years ago, when we were in Opposition. He had cancer and he said to me: the drug I need – it’s out there but they won’t give it to me because it’s too expensive …please, if you get in, do something about it.

And we have. A new cancer drugs fund that has got the latest drugs to more than 21,000 people and counting. There was a reason we could do that. It’s because we made a big decision to protect the NHS from spending cuts.

No other party made that commitment.

Not Labour. Not the Liberal Democrats. Just us – the Conservatives.

To all those people who said we’d bring the NHS down ... I say …well, yes, you’ve got a point.

I’ll tell you what is down.

Waiting lists – down. Mixed wards – down. The number of managers – down. Bureaucratic targets – down. Hospital infections – down.

And what’s up? The number of doctors, the number of dentists, the number of midwives, the number of operations carried out in our NHS.

So be in no doubt: this is the party of the NHS and that’s the way it’s going to stay.

We made a big decision to go on saving lives abroad too. I know some are sceptical about our aid budget. But picture the scene – you’re in a health centre in Kinshasa. See the child with a needle in her arm, being injected with a Yellow Fever vaccine …the difference between living and dying…

…how can anyone tell me that’s a waste of money.

Since we gathered here in Birmingham on Sunday, British aid money has vaccinated 130 thousand children around the world. One hundred and thirty thousand children.

You, the Conservative party helped do that, and you should be proud of what you’ve done.

Here’s something else this party’s done in government. Last December I was at a European Council in Brussels. It was three in the morning, there was a treaty on the table that was not in Britain’s interests…

…and twenty five people around that table were telling me to sign it.

But I did something that no other British leader has ever done before …I said no – Britain comes first – and I vetoed that EU treaty.

We’re doing big, Conservative things.

For years people said you’ll never reform public sector pensions, the trade unions won’t stand for it. Well, we’ve done it, and it’s going to cut the cost to the taxpayer almost in half.

For years people said benefits are out of control and there’s nothing you can do about it. Well, because of our welfare cap, no family will be getting more in benefits than the average family earns.

For years people asked why we couldn’t get rid of those radical preachers who spout hatred about Britain while living off the taxpayer…

…well, Theresa May – a great Home Secretary - has done it – and she’s got Abu Hamza on that plane and out of our country to face justice.

Be proud of what we’ve done already. Two million of the lowest-paid workers being taken out of income tax altogether. Over eighteen million households helped with a freeze in their council tax – and we’re freezing it all over again next year too.

BRITAIN ON THE RISE

Big, Conservative things - delivered by this government; made possible by this party. We can deliver. We can do big things.

The Olympics reminded us how great it feels to be successful. But we mustn’t let that warm glow give us a false sense of security. All around the world, countries are on the rise.

Yes, we’ve been hearing about China and India for years …but it’s hard to believe what’s happening in Brazil, in Indonesia, in Nigeria too.

Meanwhile, the old powers are on the slide. What do the countries on the rise have in common?

They are lean, fit, obsessed with enterprise, spending money on the future – on education, incredible infrastructure and technology.

And what do the countries on the slide have in common?

They’re fat, sclerotic, over-regulated, spending money on unaffordable welfare systems, huge pension bills, unreformed public services.

I sit in those European Council meetings where we talk endlessly about Greece…

…while on the other side of the world, China is moving so fast it’s creating a new economy the size of Greece every three months.

I am not going to stand here as Prime Minister and allow this country to join the slide. My job – our job - is to make sure that in this twenty first century, as in the centuries that came before, our country, Britain, is on the rise. And we here know how that is done.

It is the collective result of individual effort and aspiration…

… the ideas you have, the businesses you start, the hours you put in.

Aspiration is the engine of progress. Countries rise when they allow their people to rise. In this world where brains matter more, where technologies shape our lives, where no-one is owed a living …the most powerful natural resource we have is our people.

Not just the scientists, the entrepreneurs, the engineers ... not just the teachers, the parents, the nurses … but all our people: including the poorest, those who’ve never had a job, never had a chance, never had hope.

That’s why the mission for this government is to build an aspiration nation … to unleash and unlock the promise in all our people.

And for us Conservatives, this is not just an economic mission – it’s also a moral one. It’s not just about growth and GDP…

…it’s what’s always made our hearts beat faster – aspiration; people rising from the bottom to the top.

Line one, rule one of being a Conservative is that it’s not where you’ve come from that counts, it’s where you’re going.

We’ve been led by the daughter of a grocer, the son of a music hall performer ... by a Jew when Jews were marginalised, by a woman when women were sidelined. We don’t look at the label on the tin; we look at what’s in it.

Let me put that another way. We don’t preach about one nation but practise class war …we just get behind people who want to get on in life.

The doers. The risk takers. The young people who dream of their first pay-cheque, their first car, their first home – and are ready and willing to work hard to get those things.

While the intellectuals of other parties sneer at people who want to get on in life, we here salute you.

They call us the party of the better-off … no: we are the party of the want to be better-off, those who strive to make a better life for themselves and their families – and we should never, ever be ashamed of saying so.

THE RIGHT IDEAS

This party has a heart but we don’t like wearing it on our sleeve. Conservatives think: let’s just get on with the job and help people and not bang on about it. It’s not our style. But there’s a problem with that.

It leaves a space for others to twist our ideas and distort who we are: the cartoon Conservatives who don’t care. My mission from the day I became leader was to change that. Yes, to show the Conservative party is for everyone: North or South, black or white, straight or gay.

But above all - to show that Conservative methods are not just the way we grow a strong economy, but the way we build a big society.

That Conservative methods are not just good for the strong and the successful but the best way to help the poor, and the weak, and the vulnerable.

Because it’s not enough to know our ideas are right – we’ve got to explain why they are compassionate too. Because we know what we’re up against.

We say we’ve got to get the private sector bigger and the public sector smaller…our opponents call it ‘Tory cuts, slashing the state’. No: it’s the best way to create the sustainable jobs people need.

We say help people become independent from welfare…our opponents call it: ‘cruel Tories, leaving people to fend for themselves.’

No: there is only one real route out of poverty and it is work.

We say we’ve got to insist on a disciplined, rigorous education for our children … our opponents call it: ‘elitist Tories, old-fashioned and out of touch.’

No: a decent education is the only way to give all our children a proper start in this world.

The reason we want to reform schools, to cut welfare dependency, to reduce government spending is not because we’re the same old Tories who want to help the rich... it’s because we’re the Tories whose ideas help everyone - the poorest the most.

A strong private sector. Welfare that works. Schools that teach. These three things are essential to helping our people rise They are essential to our success in this world.

And you know what – Labour will fight them all the way. So these things are not just the battle-ground for Britain’s future … they are also the battle-lines for the next election – and it is a fight we’ve got to win, for our party and our country.

ECONOMY

To help our people rise, then – number one – we need an economy that creates good jobs. We need businesses, of every size, in every type of industry, in every part of the country – investing and taking people on.

There are some basic things they need to do that. Low interest rates so they can afford to take out a loan.

And confidence that it’s worth investing - because the customers will be there, whether at home or abroad. Getting the deficit down is essential for both.

That’s why our deficit reduction plan is not an alternative to a growth plan: it’s the very foundation of our growth plan. It’s the only way we’ll get Britain on the rise.

Now I know you are asking whether the plan is working. And here’s the truth: the damage was worse than we thought, and it's taking longer than we hoped.

The world economy – especially in the Eurozone – has been much weaker than expected in the past two years. When some of our big trading partners like Ireland, Spain and Italy are suffering, they buy less from us. That hurts our growth and makes it harder to pay off our debts.

But here is the crucial thing you need to know.

Yes it’s worse than we thought, yes it’s taking longer, but we are making progress. Thanks to the grit and resolve of George Osborne, we have cut a quarter off the deficit in the past two years. 25 per cent. That’s helped to keep interest rates at record low levels...

...keeping mortgages low. Leaving more money in your pockets. Giving businesses more confidence to invest. Creating more jobs.

And if you don’t believe me, just look at the job creation figures. Since this government took office, over one million new jobs have been created in the private sector. That is more – net – in the last two years than Labour managed in ten years.

LABOUR

Now, the Labour politicians who got us into the mess say they have a different way out of it. They call it Plan B and it goes like this: We should stop worrying about deficit reduction, borrow more money and spend it to boost the economy.

It sounds so reasonable when you put it like that. Let me tell you why it’s not.

Right now, while we’ve got a deficit, the people we’re borrowing money from believe that we’ll pay it back - because we’ve set out a tough plan to cut spending and live within our means.

That’s why our interest rates are among the lowest in the world, even though the deficit left to us by Labour was one of the highest in the world.

If we did what Labour want, and watered down our plans, the risk is that the people we borrow money from would start to question our ability and resolve to pay off our debts.

Some may actually refuse to lend us that money. Others would only lend it to us at higher interest rates.

That would hurt the economy and hit people hard.

If you have a mortgage of £100,000, just a 1 per cent interest rate rise would mean an extra thousand pounds to pay each year. Labour’s plan to borrow more is actually a massive gamble with our economy and our future. And it would squander the sacrifices we’ve already made.

We’re here because they spent too much and borrowed too much. How can the answer be more spending and more borrowing? I honestly think Labour haven’t learned a single thing.

When they were in office, their answer was always: Borrow more money.

Now they’re out of office it’s: Borrow more money.

Whatever the day, whatever the question, whatever the weather it’s: borrow more money.

Borrow, borrow, borrow.

Labour: the party of one notion: more borrowing. I sometimes wonder if they know anything about the real economy at all.

Did you hear what Ed Miliband said last week about taxes? He described a tax cut as the government writing people a cheque.

Ed... Let me explain to you how it works. When people earn money, it’s their money. Not the government’s money: their money.

Then, the government takes some of it away in tax. So, if we cut taxes, we’re not giving them money - we’re taking less of it away. OK?

And while we’re on that - who suffers when the wealthy businessman goes off to live in Geneva? Not him – he’s paying about half the tax he would do here … it’s those who want to work who suffer because the jobs aren’t being created here.

We promised that those with the broadest shoulders would bear the biggest burden … and with us, the rich will pay a greater share of tax in every year of this Parliament than in any one of the thirteen years under Labour.

Under Labour.

We haven’t forgotten, you know. We remember who spent our golden legacy, who sold our gold …who busted our banks, who smothered our businesses … who wracked up our debts, who wrecked our economy …who ruined our reputation, who risked our future …who did this? – Labour did this – and this country should never forget it.

ASPIRATION ECONOMY

To get Britain on the rise we need a whole new economy …more enterprising, more aspirational …and it’s taking shape already.

We’re getting our entrepreneurial streak back: last year the rate of new business creation was faster than any other year in our history.

Let me repeat that.

The rate at which new businesses started – faster than any year on record. We’re making things again. We had a trade surplus in cars last year for the first time in almost 40 years.

And it’s not just the old industries growing, it’s the new. We’re number one in the world for offshore wind. Number one in the world for tidal power. The world’s first green investment bank.

Britain leading; Britain on the rise. We’re showing we can do it. Look at the new investment coming in.

In the last two years, Google, Intel, Cisco – the big tech firms – they’ve all set up new bases here. And we are selling to the world again.

When I became Prime Minister I said to the Foreign Office: those embassies you’ve got …turn them into showrooms for our cars, department stores for our fashion, technology hubs for British start-ups.

Yes, you’re diplomats but you need to be our country’s salesforce too. And look what’s happening. In just two years, our exports to Brazil are up 25 per cent … to China – 40 per cent … to Russia – 80 per cent.

There are so many opportunities in this world. I want to tell you about one business that’s seizing them. It’s run by a guy called Alastair Lukies.

He and his business partner saw a world with almost 6 billion mobile phones and just 2 billion bank accounts. They saw the huge gap in the market– and they started a mobile banking firm … helping people in the poorest parts of the world manage their money and start new companies.

He’s been with me on trade missions all over the world – and his business is booming. Back in 2010, when we came to office, they employed about 100 people – now it’s more than 700.

Then they were nowhere in Africa, nowhere in Asia, now they are the global player, with one million new users every month. So don’t let anyone tell you Britain can’t make it in this world – we’re the most enterprising, buccaneering, creative, dynamic nation on earth.

And to those who question whether it’s right to load up a plane with businesspeople – whether we’re flying to Africa, Indonesia, to the Gulf or China …whether we’re taking people from energy, finance, technology or yes – defence … I say – there is a global battle out there to win jobs, orders, contracts … and in that battle I believe in leading from the front.

To get our economy on the rise there’s a lot more to do – and frankly a lot more fights to be had. Because there are too many of what I’d call the “yes-but-no” people. The ones who say “yes, our businesses need to expand …but no we can’t reform planning.”

It’s simple. For a business to expand, it needs places to build. If it takes too long, they’ll just build elsewhere.

I visited a business the other day that wanted to open a big factory just outside Liverpool. But the council was going to take so long to approve the decision that they’re now building that factory on the continent – and taking hundreds of jobs with them.

If we’re going to be a winner in this global race we’ve got to beat off this suffocating bureaucracy once and for all. And then there are those who say “yes of course we need more housing” … but “no” to every development – and not in my backyard.

Look - it's OK for my generation. Many of us have got on the ladder. But you know the average age that someone buys their first home today, without any help for their parents? 33 years old.

We are the party of home ownership – we cannot let this carry on.

So yes – we’re doubling the discount for buying your council house …we’re helping first-time buyers get a 95 per cent mortgage …but there’s something else we need to do – and that’s accept we need to build more houses in Britain.

There are young people who work hard year after year but are still living at home. They sit in their childhood bedroom, looking out of the window dreaming of a place of their own.

I want us to say to them – you are our people, we are on your side, we will help you reach your dreams.

WELFARE

If we want our people to rise so Britain can rise, we must tackle welfare. Here’s two facts for you.

Fact one. We spend £90 billion a year on welfare for working-age people. Not pensions. Just welfare for working age people – and that’s one pound in every eight the government spends.

Fact two. More of our children live in households where nobody works than almost any other nation in Europe. Let me put it simply. Welfare isn’t working. And this is a tragedy.

Our reforms are just as profound as those of Beveridge 60 years ago. He had his great evils to slay. Squalor. Ignorance. Want. Idleness. And Disease.

Here are mine.

First, unfairness.

What are hard-working people who travel long distances to get into work and pay their taxes meant to think when they see families – individual families – getting 40, 50, 60 thousand pounds of housing benefit to live in homes that these hard working people could never afford themselves?

It is an outrage. And we are ending it by capping housing benefit.

The second evil: injustice.

Here’s the choice we give our young people today.

Choice one: Work hard. Go to college. Get a job. Live at home. Save up for a flat. And as I’ve just said, that can feel like forever.

Or: Don’t get a job. Sign on. Don’t even need to produce a CV when you do sign on. Get housing benefit. Get a flat. And then don’t ever get a job or you’ll lose a load of housing benefit.

We must be crazy.

So this is what we’ve done.

Now you have to have to sign a contract that says: you do your bit and we’ll do ours.

It requires you to have a real CV and it makes clear: you have to seek work and take work – or you will lose your benefit. And we’re going to look at ending automatic access to housing benefit for people under 25 too.

If hard-working young people have to live at home while they work and save, why should it be any different for those who don’t?

The next evil: bureaucracy.

Sign on. Sign here. Come back in a fortnight. Repeat as required.

What does this do for the guy who’s been out of work for years, playing computer games all day, living out a fantasy because he hates real life?

For people like him we’re doing something new. The Work Programme takes the money we’re going to save from getting people off the dole …and uses it today to get them into work, with proper training.

We’re spending up to £14,000 on one individual to get them into work – and already almost 700,000 people have got onto the Work Programme.

So let’s be clear: in British politics today it is this party saying no-one is a write-off, no-one is hopeless …and with Iain Duncan Smith leading this revolution let this be the party that shows there is ability and promise in everyone.

And just one more thing on welfare.

You know our work experience programme, where we give young people the chance to work in a supermarket, a shop, an office?

Here’s what one union official said about it. I quote: “The scheme belongs back in the nineteenth century, along with Oliver Twist and the workhouse. It is nothing short of state sponsored slavery…”

Honestly. What an appalling, snobbish attitude to the idea of work. We’re not sending children up chimneys, we’re giving them a chance. What’s cruel isn’t asking something of people – it’s when we ask nothing of them. Work isn’t slavery, it’s poverty that is slavery…

…and again it’s us, the modern compassionate Conservative party, who are the real champions of fighting poverty in Britain today.

EDUCATION

To help people to rise, to help Britain rise, there’s a third – crucial – thing we must do. Educate all our children.

And I mean really educate them, not just pump up the grades each year. In maths, in science, in reading, we’ve fallen behind …not just behind Germany and Canada but Estonia and Australia too.

This is Britain’s real school report and the verdict is clear: must try harder. You’ve heard of pushy parents, sharp-elbowing their way to a better education for their kids?

Well – this is a pushy government.

My approach is very simple. I’ve got two children in primary school, and I want for your children what I want for mine. To go to schools where discipline is strict, expectations are high and no excuses are accepted for failure.

I don’t want great schools to just be the preserve of those that can pay the fees, or buy the nice house in the right catchment area …I want those schools to be open to every child – in every neighbourhood.

And the reason I know that every child can go to a school like that is because with this Government, more and more new ones are opening.

We’ve heard from some of them this week … not just the 79 new free schools – with over a hundred more to come…

…but from some of the more than 2000 academies we’ve helped create – state schools given all the freedoms, and carrying all the high expectations, of private schools.

Yes – that’s my plan – millions of children sent to independent schools …independent schools, in the state sector.

That’s the genuine revolution that’s now underway.

The Harris Academy in Peckham has increased the number of students getting five good GCSEs – from 12 percent when it was under local authority control to almost 90 percent now.

The transformation has been astonishing – and the methods have been Conservative.

Smart uniforms, teachers in suits. Children taught physics, chemistry and biology not soft options. Children set by ability – with excellence applauded, extra resources for those most in need but no excuses for slacking.

When you see a school like that succeed it prompts the question: Why can’t every school be that way? Why can’t every child have those chances?

It’s not because parents aren’t ambitious enough – most of these schools are massively over-subscribed.

It’s because the old educational establishment – the left-wing local authorities, the leaders of the teachers unions, the Labour party theorists – stood in the way.

When we saw a badly failing school in Haringey and wanted to turn it into an Academy, the Labour authority, the Labour MP and the teaching unions said no.

When inspirational teachers and parents – in Hammersmith, in Norwich, in Bristol and in Wigan – wanted to open free schools, the left-wing establishment said no.

When we proposed: More pay for good teachers... Getting rid of bad teachers …Longer school days to help children learn… Flexible school hours to help parents work …More stretching exams for those who’re really able… Less nonsense about health and safety…the left-wing establishment have said just one thing: No.

When you ask them: why is a school failing? Why aren’t the children succeeding? You hear the same thing over and over again.

‘What can you expect with children like these?’ they say. ‘These children are disadvantaged.’

Of course we want to tackle every disadvantage. But isn’t the greatest disadvantage of all being written off by those so in hock to a culture of low expectations that they have forgotten what it’s like to be ambitious, to want to transcend your background, to overcome circumstance and succeed on your own terms?

It’s that toxic culture of low expectations – that lack of ambition for every child – which has held this country back.

Well, Michael Gove and I are not waiting for an outbreak of sanity in the headquarters of the NUT or an embrace of aspiration in the higher reaches of Labour before we act.

Because our children can’t wait.

So when people say we should slow down our education reforms – so adults can adjust to them, I say:

I want more free schools, more Academies, more rigorous exams in every school, more expected of every child.

And to all those people who say: he wants children to have the kind of education he had at his posh school …I say: yes – you’re absolutely right.

I went to a great school and I want every child to have a great education.

I’m not here to defend privilege, I’m here to spread it.

CONCLUSION

I don’t have a hard luck story. My dad was a stockbroker from Berkshire.

It’s only when your dad’s gone that you realise – not just how much you really miss them – but how much you really owe them.

My dad influenced me much more than I ever thought. He was born with no heels on his feet and legs about a foot shorter than they’re meant to be. But he never complained - even when he lost both those legs later in life.

Because disability in the 1930s was such a stigma, he was an only child. Probably a lonely child.

But Dad was the eternal optimist. To him the glass was always half full. Usually with something alcoholic in it.

When I was a boy I remember once going on a long walk with him in the village where we lived, passing the church he supported and the village hall where he took part in interminable parish council meetings.

He told me what he was most proud of. It was simple – working hard from the moment he left school and providing a good start in life for his family.

Not just all of us, but helping his mum too, when his father ran off. Not a hard luck story, but a hard work story.

Work hard. Family comes first. But put back in to the community too.

There is nothing complicated about me. I believe in working hard, caring for my family and serving my country. And there is nothing complicated about what we need today.

This is still the greatest country on earth. We showed that again this summer. 22nd in world population. 3rd in the medals table.

But it’s tough. These are difficult times. We’re being tested. How will we come through it? Again, it’s not complicated. Hard work. Strong families. Taking responsibility. Serving others.

As I said on the steps of No10 Downing Street before walking through that door: Those who can should, those who can’t we will always help.

The job of this party … of this government … is to help to bring out the best in this country. Because at our best we’re unbeatable.

We know Britain can deliver because we’ve seen it time and again.

This is the country that … invented the computer, defeated the Nazis, started the web, saw off the slave trade, unravelled DNA and fought off every invader for a thousand years.

We even persuaded the Queen to jump out of a helicopter to make the rest of the world smile …. there is absolutely nothing we cannot do.

Can we make Britain the best place in the world to start a business, grow a business and help that business take on the world and win? Yes.

Can we – the people who invented the welfare state in the first place – turn it into something that rewards effort, helps keep families together and really helps the poorest with a new start in life. Yes.

Can we take our schools and turn out students that will take on the brightest in the world? Yes. Of course we can.

Let us here in this hall, here in this government, together in this country make this pledge – let’s build an aspiration nation …let’s get Britain on the rise.

Deficit, paid down. Tough decisions, taken. Growth, fired up. Aspiration, backed all the way.

We know what it takes to win … to win in the tough world of today … to win for all our people … to win for Britain.

So let’s get out there and do it."