Cameron defends his reforms to build an ‘aspiration nation’

In his keynote speech in Birmingham, the Prime Minister batted away accusations the Conservatives are the “party of the rich” with the firm assertion his focus on reducing public spending, cutting welfare dependency and freeing schools from local authority control is “essential to helping our people rise”.

Clearly stung by recent criticism that his Government has lurched to the Right, Mr Cameron spoke of “compassionate Conservatives” who are on the side of those striving for a better life and are the “real champions of fighting poverty”.

Britain, he said, must become an “aspiration nation” where collective hard work pays dividends for all.

“They call us the party of the better-off,” he said. “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.”

In a highly personal address, Mr Cameron alluded to his disabled father and disabled son while meeting the aspersions cast upon his privileged background head-on, telling delegates his family’s history is “not a hard-luck story, but a hard-work story.”

“I’m not here to defend privilege,” he said. “I’m here to spread it.”

The Prime Minister rose to the challenge laid down by Opposition leader Ed Miliband in his conference speech last week, that Labour are now the One Nation party.

“We don’t preach about one nation but practise class war,” he said. “We just get behind people who want to get on in life. The do-ers. 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.”

Ridiculing Labour’s record in Government, he repeatedly questioned the economic competence of the Shadow Cabinet.

“We’re here because they spent too much and borrowed too much,” he said. “How can the answer be more spending and more borrowing? I honestly think Labour haven’t learned a single thing.” And he joked: “Labour, the party of ‘one notion’ – more borrowing.”

Pledging to get Britain “on the rise” in an increasingly competitive world, Mr Cameron delivered heavily-trailed warnings that Britain must “sink or swim; do or decline” in its “hour of reckoning”.

And in a passage to delight industrialists in Yorkshire, he put the offshore wind industry which many believe could rejuvenate the economy of the Humber at the centre of his vision for the nation’s future.

“We’re making things again,” the Prime Minister said. “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.”

The speech was lauded by Mr Cameron’s supporters, but 
business leaders were more cautious.

John Longworth, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “We can build an ‘aspiration nation’, but businesses need more than just words.”

Labour said the speech showed Mr Cameron was “rattled”. Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Michael Dugher said: “This was a defensive speech, from an out-of-touch, clearly rattled leader, who cannot be the One Nation Prime Minister we need.

“David Cameron never once mentioned the double-dip recession or the one million young people out of work. His speech failed to set out the real change our economy needs.”

New York mayor jets in to boost conservatives

David Cameron was given high-profile backing from across the Atlantic as he prepared for his speech to the Tory conference.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg jetted in to offer the Prime Minister his support, telling Tories they were “lucky” to be led by him.

He said the Tory leader was tackling “big challenges”.

“In 2010, when David Cameron entered 10 Downing Street, the British economy and the entire European Union was in dire straits,” he told delegates. “Since then, as we keep reading, most national governments have tried to ride out the storm by simply battening down the hatches and hoping that clear skies will return quickly.

“But very few governments have charted new courses that will lead them to clear skies. I think the United Kingdom has been an exception – and the Conservative Party has been the reason.”

Mr Bloomberg, who has been in both the Republican and Democratic parties but now sits as an independent, hailed the Government’s education, health and welfare reforms. “David Cameron has been a leader in creating a government that lives by the values it preaches – that’s all too rare. He has governed with integrity, he has not just promised change, but he has delivered it, and he’s been a Conservative in the very best sense of the word.”