Conservatives - Monday Today at Conference

Welcome to our first Today at the Tory Party Conference

in Birmingham, where it fell to the Chancellor to put the weekend's

shenanigans - a defection and a resignation - behind them,

George Osborne promised to balance the budget in the next parliament

with a two-year freeze in benefits paid to people of working age.

And he pledged to "put a stop" to the "extraordinary lengths" some

And after two Tory defections to UKIP, with maybe more to come,

who do the faithful here prefer - UKIP or the Liberal Democrats?

Fer or their coalition partners the Liberal Democrats.

I I happen to like Nigel Farage. I shared a few beers with him. Doesn't

mean I share the same politics. The Chancellor's job this morning

was to rescue this conference from a So he talked up the economy,

rounded on Ed Miliband for not mentioning the deficit and promised

a further crackdown on welfare - this time a two-year freeze

from 2016 on working age benefits, This most political

of chancellors clearly wants this to be a dividing line with Labour

in the coming election. To leave behind a past

of spending beyond our means, a past Record numbers of new firms,

business growth, faster The fastest fall in unemployment

on record. Our long-term economic

plan is working. In fact, millions of people who,

because of what we have done Who because of what we have done

together now run their own business. Who because of what we've done

together are providing And everyone in this hall

should be proud of that. I don't stand here marvelling

at how much we have done. On the contrary, I am humbled

by how much more we have to do. The debts that need reducing,

the small businesses that need The infrastructure

that needs building. The better future

for Britain that needs securing. We here resolve we will finish

the job that we have started. That is what

our party has always done. Apply our values and ideas to the

challenges of the age and to march Ed Miliband made a pitch

for office that was so forgettable Welfare spending makes up a third

of the entire Government budget. We are going to live

in a country where the elderly have dignity in retirement,

and the vulnerable and people with But we can't afford to live

in one where we spend ?100 billion on welfare payments for people

of working age. And we have such debts,

and even with the reforming decisions that Iain Duncan Smith

and I have taken, benefits have risen more than earnings

since Labour's great recession. That is not sustainable for any

nation, and it is not fair either. 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 We will replace jobseeker's

allowance, reform housing benefit and take

the benefit cap we have reduced introduced down to ?23,000,

because families out of work should Prf prv the Chancellor wants to

tackle technology companies who try to avoid paying tax. I think we know

who he is talking about. And it is this pro-business

Conservative Chancellor who says to some of the biggest technology

companies in the world this today. You are welcome here in

Britain with open arms. You have the advantages of our

skilled population to work for you. Broadband connections to deliver

your service, and our NHS to So while we offer some

of the lowest business taxes in the world, we expect those taxes

to be paid, not avoided, and some technology companies go to

extraordinary lengths to pay little If you abuse our tax system,

you abuse the trust of the British people, and my message to these

companies is clear. Low taxes

but low taxes that are paid, part of There is one final

choice we should make. A choice this party

of progress always makes. And that is to trust people

with their own money. That is why in my budget this year I

apply that philosophy with far-reaching new freedoms in the way

people can access their pensions. Now these freedoms are based

on the simple idea that people know better how to spend their own money

than governments do. This party, that gave people

the right to buy their own home, is the party that is now giving people

ownership of their own pension too. There are still rules that say you

can't pass on to the next generation any of your

pension pot when you die, without Now I could choose to

cut this tax rate. Instead, I choose to

abolish it all together. People who have worked

and saved all their lives will be able to pass on their hard-earned

pensions to their families tax free, The children and grandchildren

and others who benefit will get the same tax treatment on this

income as any other, but only Freedom for people's pensions,

a pension tax established, passing on your pension tax free,

not a promise for the next Conservative Government,

but put into place and delivered Now we are eight months away

from one of the most important We can face it with confidence,

for we go to the people For five years Britain has pursued

a clear economic policy. When all of Europe there has been

crisis and uncertainty Britain has Now we seek a new mandate,

as the party of jobs and security and a strong Prime Minister,

against the party offering higher And we are going to offer political

resolve and economic competence, a confident future for Britain

as the most prosperous country We are going to say to the British

people choose jobs. Choose the Conservative,

choose the future. George Osborne

addressing conference. Straight after his speech,

I spoke to Matthew Hancock, the Business Minister,and asked him

about the fairness of freezing on working age benefits when wages

were stagnant or falling. We are talking here about a cash

freeze in the amount of benefits, because we think that is the fairest

way to tackle the overspending on welfare that has grown up over the

last few decades. Real take home pay for the bottom 10% of earners was

?7361 in 08. It is now round 7,00 pounds. It has fallen. Real take

home pay and you know are going to cut real benefits. You are taking

that measure, from the great recession, and as the Chancellor

said in his speech, there is a very strong link between having a

recession as a country, and people's pay, and absolutely, because of the

recession, undoubtedly, on average, pay has fallen. We although that.

Real take home pay? Do you know why? When there is a recession

Real take home pay? Do you know why? economy shrinks and it is the

accumulation of the financial income of everybody in it. O so the real

take home pay of people is fall, why you hitting them with a benefit us

cut? You have muddled it up. Because, no, no, let me answer your

question. You said, that they, it is falling, that is not what the

figures show. It has fallen, absolutely, and we had Labour's

great recession and boy are we not going to let them forget it, but we

are turning this round, it is not easy, but the best thing we can do

to support people on low pay is cut their income taxes, and if you say a

two earner couple, with a family, on ?13,000 each per year, you will lose

round ?400 because of this but you will gain over ?1100 because of the

tax measures we have taken. That means you are overall better off.

You have cut the top tax rate for the rich, the best payers and now

you are going to give this huge middle class benefit to people with

big pension, you are abolishing the 55% tax.

That is not true. Not only are the, the best, the most well paid paying

the highest proportion of the tax stake than they have in recent time

bus the change to pensions is about making sure that it pays to save, so

bheedge pay... Why did you introduce the 55% tax rate? It was 85% before

that. You increased it to 55% for most people. Why it is wrong to do

it now? That is not quite right. It was 85 for some and 35 for some. Now

we have got rid of it all together. The biggest guessing game is who

might be the next Tory defector to UKIP and when that might be. I spoke

to an MEP Daniel Hannan, he is close friends with Douglas Carswell, and

Mark Reckless, the two Tory defectors so far. Before we hear

from him, let us thatter from Giles, he took our mood box out among the

party faithful, to find out who they would prefer as coalition partners.

UKIP or the Liberal Democrats? Ask any Conservative at this conference

what they want after 2015 and they will say a majority. If they don't

get it some would prefer to be in a minority Government. If they had to

do a deal with another party, who would it be? Who would they refer,

the Liberal Democrats or UKIP? It is social liberalism, UKIP are a

dangerous party, their policies are not right for Britain. There was a

definite choice there, why is that? O I feel UKIP is closer to us, being

two centre-right party, we share several similarities. What is

interesting, there is a binary choice, UKIP or the Liberal

Democrat, is the number of people who go I don't want to answer that

and go scurrying up through there. If you had to choose... Liberal

Democrats I am afraid. Why are you afraid? I am very definite. I don't

like UKIP. A lot of their people are dodgy just doesn't feel comfortable

to me. I consider myself a right-wing

Conservative but I am pro Europe, and that is why I am sceptical to

UKIP. I'd rather dive naked into a barrel

of wasps than deal with either. I do not know what they deal with, so I

would not vote for UKIP. I happen to like Nigel Farage, I have shared

some beers with him but it does not mean I share the same politics. He

is a good bloke but he has different politics. I have a lot more in

common with UKIP than the Liberal Democrats. Joining UKIP with the

backward step. -- would be. We have got a lot done with them. Are you

suggesting that with a UKIP publishing, they would not be a

pushover? Yes. There are so many problems and that is why you asked

me a! Can we look at your T-shirt? They are easier to control than

UKIP. UKIP will not get a decent number of seats in the House of

Commons. That is surprising because in Doncaster I was told that if we

asked this question, they would walk it. They have not. That is either

because the sort of Tory who likes UKIP is not here or they are wrong.

A third of these people are those who say they are closer to us, but

two thirds of that is better the devil you know, better the devil you

do not. were not just colleagues, you are close personal friends, so

you must have known they were going to jump ship. They are friends and

it is a difficult situation for me. I think they have made a mistake I

will not disown my friendship with them. They have acted on principle

and wrestled with the decision. To turn your back on the relationships

you have built up is not something you do frivolously. They have done

lots of soul-searching. You say you will not defect, but he said he

would not defect either. IU fibbing? I am not fibbing and I have

explained at length stop the War two possible parties in government. One

will cancel the referendum and do what it did when it would last in

office. Unemployment will rise, the deficit will rise, it will cancel

the welfare reforms, the education reforms, it is a pity. There are

good patriotic people voting Conservative, but as things stand,

because of the split, it looks like Ed will be Prime Minister with 35%

public support. You give our viewers the guarantee that you will not

defect to UKIP on this side of polling day? Yes. Why not? Had the

Conservative Party not offered a referendum, I would have found it

difficult to fight the last election as a Conservative. The issue that

animates me and a lot of people in the Tory party is being able to be a

free country, trading with Europe, but also embracing the wider

opportunities of other continents. It seems the only way we will settle

that issue is with a national referendum. The tragedy will be is

if we do not get that referendum because of UKIP. But they both claim

that this referendum is preordained to deliver a yes vote, and even if

it is just small changes that David Cameron gets comic he will come to

-- that David Cameron gets comic he will come to the British people and

say he has changed. I do not think the British people will fall for the

same trick that Harold Wilson told. Ultimately, it will not be me or you

who decides this, but it will be the British people. It is clear from

what the Prime Minister has said that what we will end up with is

something very close to the existing terms. We have had 40 years to get

used to the EU, and the question we will face is, will we remain part of

it? Are we happy to be part of that united Europe? Or are we going to

raise our eyes to more distant horizons and embrace the

opportunities that come to us as a global nation, linked by our history

and drug free to every other cabal ego -- linked by our history and

geography to every archipelago? The afternoon was devoted to

a bevy of Secretaries of State including the Work and

Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and the Communities and Local

Government Secretary Eric Pickles. They like this sort of thing at Tory

conferences. I can announce that we will

accelerate the delivery of Universal Credit from the New Year. It will be

for every single community across Great Britain and secure national

delivery. At the same time, I will deliver that life change at a local

level, strengthening community partnerships, helping vulnerable

households, getting people on to a job quicker, and staying in work

longer. Not just helping the economy, and reducing child poverty

as well. I think we have to go further if we are to help families.

I have long believed that where parents have fallen into damaging

spirals of drug addiction or debt, we need to find ways of safeguarding

them, and more importantly, their families. Their children. Ensuring

their basic needs are met. That means benefits should go to support

the well-being of their families, not to feed their destructive

habits. Today, I can stand here and announce to you that I am going to

start testing prepaid cards onto which we will make benefit payments

so that the money that people receive is spent on the needs of the

family, finally helping, I believe, to break that cycle of poverty for

families on the margin. This is a change for those families that we as

a Conservative government will be proud of all stop more and more

public servants are losing patience with trade union members. The

ballots have been used to justify strike action that risks destroying

jobs and damaging the economy. A Conservative government will

legislate to outlaw strikes where less than half the eligible members

have voted. It just is not right. It is not right that an

unrepresentative trade union should be able to close schools, bring the

underground to a standstill, when they can't even persuade half of

their members to vote. The time for that has gone and we will legislate

on that. We will also end the nonsense of strikes being called on

the basis of a ballot that could be months out of date. This summer, the

NUT closed schools using a strike mandate that was two years out of

date. We will call time on that abuse as well. The time has come for

change. The time has come for English vote on English laws. --

votes. We can be proud that a Conservative Prime Minister, David

Cameron, is determined to deliver fairness to England, and to all of

the nations of the United Kingdom. APPLAUSE Of course it is not a

surprise that Labour do not get it. After all, it was my department,

under John Prescott, who thought the electorate could be palmed off with

regional government. The public saw right through that empty offer and

rejected it. Whatever the problem, any solution that involves taxpayers

funding more politicians is definitely not the answer. You know,

we want a quality for England. Labour want jobs for the boys.

Tory MP Brooks Newmark resigned as a junior minister after sending

an explicit photo of himself to someone he believed was a young

Inevitably it was a tabloid sting - the woman was a male reporter

I asked the new Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Sajid Javid if the

I am very sad for him. Brooks Newmark is a good man, a good friend

of mine and I think he made the right decision to leave office, but

the question of whether it is entrapment or not is not a question

I can answer. But you are the Minister for media, you must have a

view. It is precisely because of that that it would be inappropriate

for me to comment. It is also possible the Brooks Newmark may take

legal action and it will be a decision for the courts. The courts

may do that but he has not gone to the courts yet. Can you see any

public interest in what the newspaper did? I cannot comment on

this because I do not want to prejudice any legal action,

especially given my role as being responsible for media policy. Do you

welcome a referral of this case to the new press standards

organisation? That is up to the organisation. I understand there has

been a referral already. The organisation is therefore that and

if it has been made, and they want to look at it, then they should. It

is independence. Do you have a view? I do not want to get in involved --

involved. Is there any point in having responsibility for the media

if you cannot comment? Yes, there is that if something goes in front of

the courts, I respect that. Anything could go in front of the courts,

Minister. Then you could not comment on anything! There are strong

rumours that this could go in front of the courts.

Pork pies, black pudding, Norfolk turkeys and apples.

The Environment Secretary, Liz Truss, pledged to

She told conference it was a "disgrace" that we import large

numbers of apples, pears and cheese at a time when "we have never had it

I want to see as eating more British food in Britain. At the moment, we

import two thirds of all of our apples. We import nine tenths of all

the bar pairs. -- our pears. We import two thirds of our trees. That

is a disgrace. From the apples to the orchards of nursery rhymes, this

fruit has always been part of Britain. It has been part of our

country. I want our children to grow up, knowing the taste of British

apple. Of Cornish sardines, of Herefordshire pairs, of Melton

Mowbray pork pies, and of course black pudding. -- pears.

APPLAUSE Under Conservative government, Britain will lead the

world in food, farming and the environment. In a fortnight, I am

going to Paris for the world's largest food trade fair and I will

dig up British products. APPLAUSE -- big up. In December, I

will be in Beijing, opening up new pork markets.

That's it for today in Birmingham on the day George Osborne created

what he hopes will be a clear dividing line with Labour

by linking further cuts in welfare with deficit reduction.

Tomorrow morning, one of the Conservative's most popular figures

addresses the party faithful, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

We'll also hear from the Home Secretary, Theresa May and in

the afternoon, it's the turn of the Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and

The Daily Politics Conference Special will be on BBC2