:00:06. > :00:13.difference. Now it is time for the first Andrew
:00:13. > :00:17.Neil interview of the party conference season.
:00:17. > :00:26.In front of an audience of Liberal Democrat activists. We ought
:00:26. > :00:33.interview dally -- will interview Danny Alexander.
:00:33. > :00:39.If two years ago someone said you you would be Chief Secretary to the
:00:39. > :00:47.Treasury, what would you have said. I would have said that would be an
:00:47. > :00:57.interesting job but I would not have 100% expect it -- expected it
:00:57. > :01:07.to happen. Along of the things I was doing during the election where
:01:07. > :01:09.
:01:09. > :01:16.similar to the things I do it in this job -- a lot of the things. To
:01:16. > :01:23.be perfectly honest, I had not given much thought as to what I
:01:23. > :01:30.would do in the circumstances of a coalition.
:01:30. > :01:39.Heavy had more animosity from Liberal Democrat backbenchers or
:01:39. > :01:46.Tory backbenchers -- have you had? I think everyone supports the
:01:46. > :01:53.overall strategy of debt reduction but of course there are difficult
:01:53. > :02:02.areas, difficult choices in defence, probably that is something that
:02:02. > :02:11.Tories raise more. And 4th cuts in welfare, that is probably something
:02:11. > :02:17.that Liberal Democrats raised more. You are in something called the
:02:17. > :02:24.quad, David Cameron, George Osborne, you and Nick Clegg. Tell us about
:02:24. > :02:33.that. A way of bringing together people in economic responsibilities
:02:33. > :02:38.to mend some formality to coalition processes. We need around the
:02:38. > :02:41.Cabinet table with officials. It is a proper part of the government
:02:41. > :02:47.process. Other ministers coming depending on the subjects we are
:02:47. > :02:54.discussing. In the spending review we were looking at each and every
:02:54. > :03:01.department. They involve making choices about budgetary priorities.
:03:01. > :03:09.What policy choices that necessitated. It has evolved from
:03:09. > :03:15.there. It is something we used occasionally, not just on economic
:03:15. > :03:20.issues, but also on broader issues. Do you think differently about the
:03:20. > :03:30.Tories now that you been working with them for over a year? In a way,
:03:30. > :03:33.
:03:33. > :03:38.yes. In his are the yes or no, isn't it? It could be maybe. I
:03:38. > :03:44.think the answer is yes. I am working closely with conservatives.
:03:44. > :03:54.You do not necessarily know them very well when you are in
:03:54. > :03:56.
:03:56. > :04:02.opposition. It has been a good experience in many ways. People who
:04:02. > :04:06.we work with, you see the difference in priorities. A
:04:06. > :04:13.coalition is about having compromises and arguments as well.
:04:13. > :04:18.Do you get on well with George Osborne? Do you go to his party's?
:04:18. > :04:24.I have not been to any of these parties but we do have lunch or
:04:24. > :04:30.dinner on a regular basis. I think the work effectively together.
:04:30. > :04:37.question from the audience. It -- is anonymous. How much influenced
:04:38. > :04:44.you have over George Osborne? not a show about the best way to
:04:44. > :04:50.answer that. Maybe would be good. We work closely together is the
:04:50. > :04:55.truth. Whether it is on spending issues or other issues, we work
:04:55. > :05:00.closely together. Sometimes suggestions already is that I have
:05:00. > :05:05.had get taken forward, sometimes it is the other way around. We also
:05:05. > :05:11.have to make sure that the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister
:05:11. > :05:16.are fully engaged in those decisions. It is not just a house
:05:16. > :05:20.in the Treasurer deciding what to do and not telling anyone. We had a
:05:20. > :05:24.situation in the previous government when we had a Chancellor
:05:24. > :05:28.and Prime Minister that were not talking. You had a really
:05:28. > :05:34.dysfunctional Prime Minister. But we worked really closely together
:05:34. > :05:38.because the judgments are so important. In the first year of the
:05:38. > :05:44.coalition it seemed like you were the four guys for the coalition.
:05:44. > :05:50.The Tories seem to have a get out of jail free card. So you went down
:05:50. > :05:54.to 11% in opinion polls and that is still where you are. How will you
:05:54. > :06:00.claw your way back? I do not complete the share the analysis in
:06:00. > :06:06.terms of being the fall guys. The fact is we had some extremely
:06:06. > :06:11.difficult judgments to make. We did not come into government to cut
:06:11. > :06:18.public spending but we are in circumstances where it is necessary.
:06:18. > :06:21.We have to make sure we do it in the right way. I remember having
:06:21. > :06:28.conversations with someone who was Deputy First Minister of Scotland
:06:28. > :06:33.and he described when he was in coalition with Labour and they got
:06:33. > :06:38.it lot of abuse in the first 18 months in government. Over time
:06:38. > :06:42.people saw we had some of the best ministers in the Scottish
:06:42. > :06:47.Government and we were making a real difference in terms of policy.
:06:47. > :06:54.It took a while to get over that reaction that, these people should
:06:54. > :07:00.not be in government at all. This may surprise you. I am optimistic
:07:00. > :07:05.as drug prospects in the next election. I think we have a chance
:07:05. > :07:09.through being in government to show people we can be trusted with the
:07:09. > :07:14.economy and deliver a commitment to fairness. That is a powerful
:07:14. > :07:21.message to take to the electorate. Are you comfortable with all the
:07:22. > :07:28.Tory bashing going on at this conference? I assume it is designed
:07:28. > :07:37.to make you more distinctive. not sure I would describe it as
:07:37. > :07:46.Tory bashing. Ruthless Tory extremists, it signed and humanist
:07:46. > :07:51.-- Simon Hughes. These were his words. Could you name a ruthless
:07:51. > :07:59.Tory extremists you are working with in government? I could not.
:07:59. > :08:07.What is he talking about? There are areas of policy of disagreement.
:08:07. > :08:11.They are well known. We had a relatively public debate about NHS
:08:11. > :08:20.reforms which started at the party conference in the spring. I prefer
:08:20. > :08:30.to talk about policies and out comes. Each politician has to eat
:08:30. > :08:33.
:08:33. > :08:39.it express themselves in their own way. David Chappell wants to know,
:08:39. > :08:44.is it wise to rule out a coalition with Labour before we know how the
:08:44. > :08:49.public have voted in the next election? Bear in mind that Ed
:08:49. > :08:53.Miliband might not be the leader in the next election. I would not rule
:08:54. > :09:00.out anything at this stage and I have not done so. But I have been
:09:00. > :09:05.making comments about Labour and the economy. I think they're very
:09:05. > :09:10.far from the mainstream. It is difficult to see them having any
:09:10. > :09:14.economic credibility at all. I think it would be nice to see
:09:14. > :09:22.acknowledgement of the mistakes they made in government, an apology
:09:22. > :09:28.would be nice. I might be waiting a while. That is what makes me
:09:28. > :09:33.sceptical about them. It does not mean I'm ruling anything in or out.
:09:33. > :09:39.But you look at the party which made a huge mess of the economy. I
:09:39. > :09:48.think a bit of humility from them would be really desirable. I would
:09:48. > :09:54.not hold your breath. You are going to have a need time -- mid-term
:09:54. > :10:02.review of the coalition agreement. Well that result in a new coalition
:10:02. > :10:07.agreement? No, it will not. It is not about a new agreement all new
:10:07. > :10:12.policies. Is about looking at what we have promised, at the ambitions
:10:12. > :10:21.of the Government and reviewing the effectiveness of those things. How
:10:21. > :10:26.far have we got in implementation? One of the lessons of the prevent -
:10:26. > :10:33.- previous government was that they passed a lot of legislation but
:10:33. > :10:38.never implemented much. So we want to look at how our policies of
:10:38. > :10:44.Environment are delivering towards being the greenest government ever.
:10:44. > :10:49.It is taking stock of where you are and continuing with the agreement
:10:49. > :10:57.until the next election. It may involve new policies if there are
:10:57. > :11:07.areas where we feel we are not doing enough to implement out
:11:07. > :11:09.
:11:09. > :11:12.perspectives but it is not a wholesale new agreement. David is
:11:12. > :11:16.one of the most talented people in the Liberal Democrat Party and I
:11:16. > :11:25.would love to see him back in government. Do you think he will
:11:25. > :11:30.come back? When. I do not know about timing. But this country is
:11:30. > :11:40.facing challenging times and it is hard to see him outside government
:11:40. > :11:45.
:11:45. > :11:54.Vince Cable called for a new stimulus. Do you agree? I'm not
:11:55. > :12:04.going to comment on monetary policy. That would not be appropriate.
:12:04. > :12:10.Appropriate is it for her bins cable to comment -- Vince Cable to
:12:10. > :12:16.commence. I'm not going to get into it choices of whether the Bank of
:12:16. > :12:25.England should get involved in this. Because of the choices we have made
:12:25. > :12:29.on the fiscal side, we are seeing a stimulus already. It is helping
:12:29. > :12:37.keeping people in their jobs. If that is a very practical effect of
:12:37. > :12:42.the decisions we have made. What about the fiscal spending, because
:12:42. > :12:49.you are responsible for that it? do not think spending money we do
:12:49. > :12:53.not have is going to help. It will undermine us. He has also called
:12:53. > :12:59.for a new deal style fiscal stimulus. A suspect what he had in
:12:59. > :13:05.mind was some of the measures we are looking at. Looking at the
:13:05. > :13:11.private sector to bring investment it. We are looking at freeing up
:13:11. > :13:17.private investment. The New Deal was a massive increase in public
:13:17. > :13:24.investment. It required hundreds of federal agencies to do that. That
:13:24. > :13:29.is what he wants. What I am telling you is what we're doing. My view is
:13:29. > :13:34.we have to stick to the plans are what we have set out. We have to
:13:34. > :13:37.look for new things we can do to support growth. Some of that is
:13:38. > :13:42.going to be regulations and are planning systems. Summer that is
:13:42. > :13:52.going to be delivering in for structural programmes. Summer that
:13:52. > :13:57.is going to be a mocking private investment. Using little bits of
:13:57. > :14:07.unlocking cash. We can create jobs in this country. Are you arguing
:14:07. > :14:13.that plan A is going to plan? are big problems facing the economy.
:14:13. > :14:16.I think that the credibility of the establishment, the commitments we
:14:16. > :14:21.have made on the deficit reduction, we are not facing the problems many
:14:21. > :14:28.other countries are facing. If you look at the eurozone, you are
:14:28. > :14:32.seeing doubts about leaders making the right decisions. That is the
:14:32. > :14:39.problem that we're not saying. Look at the rows happening in the United
:14:39. > :14:47.States. We need to stick to our decisions in a time like this.
:14:47. > :14:52.�500 million of that you have talked about. Is that new money?
:14:52. > :14:56.There is no such thing as new money. This is extra money in addition to
:14:56. > :15:05.the plans you already have. this is part of the plans that we
:15:05. > :15:12.already have. It is savings within departments. It is not end creasing
:15:12. > :15:16.of role demand? It is not a stimulus. It is within the existing
:15:16. > :15:22.spending. It is directing money anyway I think can unlock more
:15:22. > :15:29.private investment. There's a lot of capacity to invest in this
:15:29. > :15:34.country. We have an example of a multi- million pounds development
:15:34. > :15:40.that was held up until a little bit of money that was put in the access
:15:40. > :15:47.route. They were able to invest hundreds of millions of pounds.
:15:47. > :15:57.have a question from Labour and Liberal use. -- Labour Liberal
:15:57. > :16:17.
:16:17. > :16:25.youth. Is there going to be a group of people on middle incomes that
:16:25. > :16:34.are going to be worse hit by the new tax reforms? We have announced
:16:34. > :16:39.our tax proposals. Guy a lot of people in the 40% tax bracket. It
:16:39. > :16:42.was not designed for them. If you are the head of an English
:16:42. > :16:51.department in a middle income school, you probably not in the tax
:16:51. > :17:00.bracket. That is something we are keeping to budget. We are looking
:17:00. > :17:07.at those issues. The most important thing is to ensure that the
:17:07. > :17:13.difficult choices I shared fairly across the population. Some of the
:17:14. > :17:21.things that we're doing, such as the welfare reforms or the child
:17:21. > :17:27.benefit being eliminated for those on higher rates. We have to do our
:17:27. > :17:34.best to ensure that the pain is spread fairly. It is an imperfect
:17:34. > :17:43.science. But we have to make some of those measures. Sadly, that is
:17:43. > :17:47.the position we have been left with. His inter-party's position and now
:17:47. > :17:53.-- is and your party's position now is that you would be willing to cut
:17:53. > :17:57.the 50p rate if other measures raise money for the better off?
:17:57. > :18:04.my position is as follows: now is the wrong time to be cutting the
:18:04. > :18:14.tax burden. We should be devoting money to the low and middle incomes.
:18:14. > :18:16.
:18:16. > :18:20.That is the right priority. A's. -- (APPLAUSE). If a better way can be
:18:20. > :18:24.made to raise money for this group of people, we were considerate. But
:18:24. > :18:30.we have to maintain the tax burden at that end of the top --
:18:30. > :18:35.population. We have to get that right. The Treasury will do an
:18:35. > :18:41.investigation to see what it has raised. If it has not raced very
:18:41. > :18:47.much, or even nothing, they need to replace it with something else. We
:18:47. > :18:57.did have to be something else which gets to the original �3.5 billion
:18:57. > :19:04.that they had it would get for the 50p? You are asking to comment on a
:19:04. > :19:11.series of hypothetical. This is my job. And the usually it is your job
:19:11. > :19:16.or not to answer. We do not know what the outcome of those studies
:19:16. > :19:23.are. We do not know what other options might be effective. We'll
:19:23. > :19:30.put it in our election manifesto. We have a different sort of opinion.
:19:30. > :19:40.What other options would you be in favour of? There are very many
:19:40. > :19:42.
:19:42. > :19:49.wealthy people who are in very large and expensive houses. The
:19:49. > :19:57.taxpayer is left with nothing. That is a big problem we have to tackle.
:19:58. > :20:05.A question from South Gloucestershire. Will you undertake
:20:05. > :20:09.to pay the threshold to the minimum wage in the not-too-distant future?
:20:10. > :20:15.If you're only on the minimum wage, you should not be paying. That is
:20:15. > :20:24.an ambition I have set out. We said as part of this coalition
:20:24. > :20:29.government we are going to fix it. I think that as Liberal Democrats
:20:29. > :20:39.we should look further. The minimum wage should be at the front page of
:20:39. > :20:42.
:20:42. > :20:51.our next Budget. (APPLAUSE). have not written our next manifesto
:20:51. > :20:57.yet. The air may be some support for the idea. You have not told me
:20:57. > :21:05.what is in the next Budget. For the sake of the British economy, are
:21:05. > :21:12.you relieved that he failed in a bid to get Britain to join the euro.
:21:12. > :21:18.Do you have a good answer? Yes. I think the flexibilities of being
:21:18. > :21:21.outside the euro have been to Britain's advantage. We have been
:21:22. > :21:31.able to devalue our currency a little bit. That has helped our
:21:32. > :21:34.
:21:34. > :21:37.export industry a little bit. I think the issue is, how do we
:21:37. > :21:40.approach our relationship with Europe are going forward. It is a
:21:40. > :21:48.lot of that thing that we can -- things that we can achieve with the
:21:48. > :21:54.Europeans. Our policy as Liberal Democrats has always been to
:21:54. > :21:58.consider joining the euro when the economic conditions are right.
:21:58. > :22:04.Anyone can see that the economic conditions are far from right right
:22:04. > :22:14.now. So you are not in favour of Europe joining -- Britain joining
:22:14. > :22:16.
:22:16. > :22:26.the euro? Know. -- not right now. If you got that wrong, why should
:22:26. > :22:34.we trust your judgement now? I did at the time. I do not think there
:22:34. > :22:44.is any point getting into hindsight. In my job there is. Let us talk
:22:44. > :22:49.
:22:49. > :22:53.about what you're doing 15 years ago. This is a family programme.
:22:53. > :23:00.is a serious point you're making. I think there are strong arguments
:23:00. > :23:04.for countries to get together to pool their monetary sovereignty.
:23:04. > :23:12.The fact is that many of the rules the eurozone set for themselves has
:23:12. > :23:15.caused many of the problems they are facing. That is why, in
:23:15. > :23:25.retrospect, being outside the euro is something that has helped us in
:23:25. > :23:25.
:23:25. > :23:29.these difficult economic times. We still had a government that made
:23:30. > :23:37.the most monumental mistakes in economic policy. Being free from
:23:37. > :23:41.the euro does not make you free from making mistakes. We do support
:23:41. > :23:47.the Conservative side of this coalition trying to repatriate
:23:47. > :23:53.powers from Europe? I do not think a wholesale renegotiation of
:23:53. > :23:56.treaties is what we need at this point. We need to be working with
:23:56. > :24:04.an encouraging art eurozone partners. They need to sort out
:24:04. > :24:12.their fiscal problems. - we need to win the arguments that we have been
:24:12. > :24:22.fighting since the 1980s. We need to win his arguments for the single
:24:22. > :24:24.
:24:24. > :24:29.market. I think we should be engaging positively with Europe to
:24:29. > :24:37.win those arguments and help businesses when jobs. We should not
:24:37. > :24:47.be political point scoring.'s. (APPLAUSE). Are you keeping a
:24:47. > :24:47.
:24:47. > :24:57.diary? No. I wish I was. Why not? was. I cannot fit it into my daily
:24:57. > :25:04.routine. I do keep notes from various meetings. We can look
:25:04. > :25:10.forward one day to the Danny Alexander diaries? May be. In a
:25:10. > :25:20.couple of decades time. Not for a while. I have plenty more living to
:25:20. > :25:23.