The Andrew Neil Interview

difference. Now it is time for the first Andrew

Neil interview of the party conference season.

In front of an audience of Liberal Democrat activists. We ought

interview dally -- will interview Danny Alexander.

If two years ago someone said you you would be Chief Secretary to the

Treasury, what would you have said. I would have said that would be an

interesting job but I would not have 100% expect it -- expected it

to happen. Along of the things I was doing during the election where

similar to the things I do it in this job -- a lot of the things. To

be perfectly honest, I had not given much thought as to what I

would do in the circumstances of a coalition.

Heavy had more animosity from Liberal Democrat backbenchers or

Tory backbenchers -- have you had? I think everyone supports the

overall strategy of debt reduction but of course there are difficult

areas, difficult choices in defence, probably that is something that

Tories raise more. And 4th cuts in welfare, that is probably something

that Liberal Democrats raised more. You are in something called the

quad, David Cameron, George Osborne, you and Nick Clegg. Tell us about

that. A way of bringing together people in economic responsibilities

to mend some formality to coalition processes. We need around the

Cabinet table with officials. It is a proper part of the government

process. Other ministers coming depending on the subjects we are

discussing. In the spending review we were looking at each and every

department. They involve making choices about budgetary priorities.

What policy choices that necessitated. It has evolved from

there. It is something we used occasionally, not just on economic

issues, but also on broader issues. Do you think differently about the

Tories now that you been working with them for over a year? In a way,

yes. In his are the yes or no, isn't it? It could be maybe. I

think the answer is yes. I am working closely with conservatives.

You do not necessarily know them very well when you are in

opposition. It has been a good experience in many ways. People who

we work with, you see the difference in priorities. A

coalition is about having compromises and arguments as well.

Do you get on well with George Osborne? Do you go to his party's?

I have not been to any of these parties but we do have lunch or

dinner on a regular basis. I think the work effectively together.

question from the audience. It -- is anonymous. How much influenced

you have over George Osborne? not a show about the best way to

answer that. Maybe would be good. We work closely together is the

truth. Whether it is on spending issues or other issues, we work

closely together. Sometimes suggestions already is that I have

had get taken forward, sometimes it is the other way around. We also

have to make sure that the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister

are fully engaged in those decisions. It is not just a house

in the Treasurer deciding what to do and not telling anyone. We had a

situation in the previous government when we had a Chancellor

and Prime Minister that were not talking. You had a really

dysfunctional Prime Minister. But we worked really closely together

because the judgments are so important. In the first year of the

coalition it seemed like you were the four guys for the coalition.

The Tories seem to have a get out of jail free card. So you went down

to 11% in opinion polls and that is still where you are. How will you

claw your way back? I do not complete the share the analysis in

terms of being the fall guys. The fact is we had some extremely

difficult judgments to make. We did not come into government to cut

public spending but we are in circumstances where it is necessary.

We have to make sure we do it in the right way. I remember having

conversations with someone who was Deputy First Minister of Scotland

and he described when he was in coalition with Labour and they got

it lot of abuse in the first 18 months in government. Over time

people saw we had some of the best ministers in the Scottish

Government and we were making a real difference in terms of policy.

It took a while to get over that reaction that, these people should

not be in government at all. This may surprise you. I am optimistic

as drug prospects in the next election. I think we have a chance

through being in government to show people we can be trusted with the

economy and deliver a commitment to fairness. That is a powerful

message to take to the electorate. Are you comfortable with all the

Tory bashing going on at this conference? I assume it is designed

to make you more distinctive. not sure I would describe it as

Tory bashing. Ruthless Tory extremists, it signed and humanist

-- Simon Hughes. These were his words. Could you name a ruthless

Tory extremists you are working with in government? I could not.

What is he talking about? There are areas of policy of disagreement.

They are well known. We had a relatively public debate about NHS

reforms which started at the party conference in the spring. I prefer

to talk about policies and out comes. Each politician has to eat

it express themselves in their own way. David Chappell wants to know,

is it wise to rule out a coalition with Labour before we know how the

public have voted in the next election? Bear in mind that Ed

Miliband might not be the leader in the next election. I would not rule

out anything at this stage and I have not done so. But I have been

making comments about Labour and the economy. I think they're very

far from the mainstream. It is difficult to see them having any

economic credibility at all. I think it would be nice to see

acknowledgement of the mistakes they made in government, an apology

would be nice. I might be waiting a while. That is what makes me

sceptical about them. It does not mean I'm ruling anything in or out.

But you look at the party which made a huge mess of the economy. I

think a bit of humility from them would be really desirable. I would

not hold your breath. You are going to have a need time -- mid-term

review of the coalition agreement. Well that result in a new coalition

agreement? No, it will not. It is not about a new agreement all new

policies. Is about looking at what we have promised, at the ambitions

of the Government and reviewing the effectiveness of those things. How

far have we got in implementation? One of the lessons of the prevent -

- previous government was that they passed a lot of legislation but

never implemented much. So we want to look at how our policies of

Environment are delivering towards being the greenest government ever.

It is taking stock of where you are and continuing with the agreement

until the next election. It may involve new policies if there are

areas where we feel we are not doing enough to implement out

perspectives but it is not a wholesale new agreement. David is

one of the most talented people in the Liberal Democrat Party and I

would love to see him back in government. Do you think he will

come back? When. I do not know about timing. But this country is

facing challenging times and it is hard to see him outside government

Vince Cable called for a new stimulus. Do you agree? I'm not

going to comment on monetary policy. That would not be appropriate.

Appropriate is it for her bins cable to comment -- Vince Cable to

commence. I'm not going to get into it choices of whether the Bank of

England should get involved in this. Because of the choices we have made

on the fiscal side, we are seeing a stimulus already. It is helping

keeping people in their jobs. If that is a very practical effect of

the decisions we have made. What about the fiscal spending, because

you are responsible for that it? do not think spending money we do

not have is going to help. It will undermine us. He has also called

for a new deal style fiscal stimulus. A suspect what he had in

mind was some of the measures we are looking at. Looking at the

private sector to bring investment it. We are looking at freeing up

private investment. The New Deal was a massive increase in public

investment. It required hundreds of federal agencies to do that. That

is what he wants. What I am telling you is what we're doing. My view is

we have to stick to the plans are what we have set out. We have to

look for new things we can do to support growth. Some of that is

going to be regulations and are planning systems. Summer that is

going to be delivering in for structural programmes. Summer that

is going to be a mocking private investment. Using little bits of

unlocking cash. We can create jobs in this country. Are you arguing

that plan A is going to plan? are big problems facing the economy.

I think that the credibility of the establishment, the commitments we

have made on the deficit reduction, we are not facing the problems many

other countries are facing. If you look at the eurozone, you are

seeing doubts about leaders making the right decisions. That is the

problem that we're not saying. Look at the rows happening in the United

States. We need to stick to our decisions in a time like this.

�500 million of that you have talked about. Is that new money?

There is no such thing as new money. This is extra money in addition to

the plans you already have. this is part of the plans that we

already have. It is savings within departments. It is not end creasing

of role demand? It is not a stimulus. It is within the existing

spending. It is directing money anyway I think can unlock more

private investment. There's a lot of capacity to invest in this

country. We have an example of a multi- million pounds development

that was held up until a little bit of money that was put in the access

route. They were able to invest hundreds of millions of pounds.

have a question from Labour and Liberal use. -- Labour Liberal

youth. Is there going to be a group of people on middle incomes that

are going to be worse hit by the new tax reforms? We have announced

our tax proposals. Guy a lot of people in the 40% tax bracket. It

was not designed for them. If you are the head of an English

department in a middle income school, you probably not in the tax

bracket. That is something we are keeping to budget. We are looking

at those issues. The most important thing is to ensure that the

difficult choices I shared fairly across the population. Some of the

things that we're doing, such as the welfare reforms or the child

benefit being eliminated for those on higher rates. We have to do our

best to ensure that the pain is spread fairly. It is an imperfect

science. But we have to make some of those measures. Sadly, that is

the position we have been left with. His inter-party's position and now

-- is and your party's position now is that you would be willing to cut

the 50p rate if other measures raise money for the better off?

my position is as follows: now is the wrong time to be cutting the

tax burden. We should be devoting money to the low and middle incomes.

That is the right priority. A's. -- (APPLAUSE). If a better way can be

made to raise money for this group of people, we were considerate. But

we have to maintain the tax burden at that end of the top --

population. We have to get that right. The Treasury will do an

investigation to see what it has raised. If it has not raced very

much, or even nothing, they need to replace it with something else. We

did have to be something else which gets to the original �3.5 billion

that they had it would get for the 50p? You are asking to comment on a

series of hypothetical. This is my job. And the usually it is your job

or not to answer. We do not know what the outcome of those studies

are. We do not know what other options might be effective. We'll

put it in our election manifesto. We have a different sort of opinion.

What other options would you be in favour of? There are very many

wealthy people who are in very large and expensive houses. The

taxpayer is left with nothing. That is a big problem we have to tackle.

A question from South Gloucestershire. Will you undertake

to pay the threshold to the minimum wage in the not-too-distant future?

If you're only on the minimum wage, you should not be paying. That is

an ambition I have set out. We said as part of this coalition

government we are going to fix it. I think that as Liberal Democrats

we should look further. The minimum wage should be at the front page of

our next Budget. (APPLAUSE). have not written our next manifesto

yet. The air may be some support for the idea. You have not told me

what is in the next Budget. For the sake of the British economy, are

you relieved that he failed in a bid to get Britain to join the euro.

Do you have a good answer? Yes. I think the flexibilities of being

outside the euro have been to Britain's advantage. We have been

able to devalue our currency a little bit. That has helped our

export industry a little bit. I think the issue is, how do we

approach our relationship with Europe are going forward. It is a

lot of that thing that we can -- things that we can achieve with the

Europeans. Our policy as Liberal Democrats has always been to

consider joining the euro when the economic conditions are right.

Anyone can see that the economic conditions are far from right right

now. So you are not in favour of Europe joining -- Britain joining

the euro? Know. -- not right now. If you got that wrong, why should

we trust your judgement now? I did at the time. I do not think there

is any point getting into hindsight. In my job there is. Let us talk

about what you're doing 15 years ago. This is a family programme.

is a serious point you're making. I think there are strong arguments

for countries to get together to pool their monetary sovereignty.

The fact is that many of the rules the eurozone set for themselves has

caused many of the problems they are facing. That is why, in

retrospect, being outside the euro is something that has helped us in

these difficult economic times. We still had a government that made

the most monumental mistakes in economic policy. Being free from

the euro does not make you free from making mistakes. We do support

the Conservative side of this coalition trying to repatriate

powers from Europe? I do not think a wholesale renegotiation of

treaties is what we need at this point. We need to be working with

an encouraging art eurozone partners. They need to sort out

their fiscal problems. - we need to win the arguments that we have been

fighting since the 1980s. We need to win his arguments for the single

market. I think we should be engaging positively with Europe to

win those arguments and help businesses when jobs. We should not

be political point scoring.'s. (APPLAUSE). Are you keeping a

diary? No. I wish I was. Why not? was. I cannot fit it into my daily

routine. I do keep notes from various meetings. We can look

forward one day to the Danny Alexander diaries? May be. In a

couple of decades time. Not for a while. I have plenty more living to