Leaders hail historic day of unity

As the Tory leader settled in to a day of cabinet appointments he claimed the five-year coalition with the Liberal Democrats would end a "chronic short-termism in government" under Labour.

Desperate to leave Labour to take the blame for the state of the economy on a day when unemployment rose, he warned it would take time to heal the economic and social problems the country faces and accused Gordon Brown of leaving a "terrible economic inheritance".

But, standing next to new Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in the Downing Street garden, he said the coalition was ushering in a "new politics, where the national interest is more important than the party interest, where co-operation wins out over confrontation, where compromise, give and take, reasonable, civilised, grown-up behaviour is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength".

With both leaders successfully having sold the coalition deal to their parties late on Tuesday night, Mr Cameron said there would be early legislation brought forward to introduce fixed-term parliaments, which will mean the coalition runs for five years.

The date of the next general election has already been agreed for the first Thursday in May 2015, unless 55 per cent of MPs backed a no-confidence motion.

He said set-period parliaments would allow "good and strong and determined government that can act in the long term" rather than government by gimmicks focused on headlines.

Looking at ease in each other's company, the pair seemed to have found it remarkably easy to put behind strong words expressed against each other during the election campaign which ended only a week ago.

Mr Cameron, the first Tory Prime Minister for 13 years, said the administration – which includes five Lib Dem cabinet seats – would be united behind the three key principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility, and said he had concluded it would give the country the "strong and stable and determined leadership" needed for the long-term.

But his repeated references to a Liberal-Conservative coalition, rather than a Conservative-Liberal one, will have jarred with some within his party who are already concerned about the amount of ground the Tories have given away to the Lib Dems in order to agree a power-sharing deal.

"We have a shared agenda and a shared resolve to tackle the challenges our country faced: to safeguard our national security and support our troops abroad, to tackle the debt crisis, to repair our broken political system and to build a stronger society," he said.

Mr Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam, said: "This is a new Government, and it's a new kind of government, a radical, reforming government where it needs to be and a source of reassurance and stability at a time of great uncertainty in our country, too."

He added: "This is a Government that will last. Not because of a list of policies, important though they are; not because it will be easy, there will be bumps and scrapes along the way, we are different parties and we have different ideas.

"This is a Government that will last despite those differences because we are united by a common purpose for the job we want to do together in the next five years.

"Our ambition is simple and yet profound. Our ambition is to put real power and opportunity into the hands of people, families and communities to change their lives and our country for the better.

"For me, that's what liberalism is all about: ensuring that everybody has the chance, no matter who they are, where they are from, to be the person they want to be, to live the life they want to live."

With Mr Clegg handed responsibility for leading political reform as Deputy Prime Minister, the two men have pledged to work closely together.

Mr Cameron said: "This is not going to be a partnership where we have to book meetings."