Cameron gambles on image before policies

Published on Wednesday 7 October 2009 22:01

CONSERVATIVE leader David Cameron will attempt to "seal the deal" with the electorate today as he sets out his credentials to be prime minister and tells the country he is ready to be tested.

In a high-risk strategy, he will take to the platform at his party's conference in Manchester with a speech that is expected to be devoid of policy or big ideas. Instead, he will rely on a "personal" pitch to convince millions of undecided voters he is ready to take over from Gordon Brown.

Mr Cameron will try to strike a tone that is serious but offers hope – in contrast to shadow chancellor George Osborne's austere policy announcements earlier this week.

The Tory leader, who turns 43 tomorrow, the age at which Tony Blair became prime minister, has been stung by criticism that he is little more than a "salesman" who lacks the maturity to lead the UK in a recession.

However, sources said the party had been buoyed by the latest YouGov tracker poll taken after Mr Osborne's speech, which showed its support up by two points to 43 per cent, while Labour lagged behind on 29 per cent, although it had gone up one point. The Liberal Democrats were down one point, on 17.

Mr Cameron has acknowledged in the past the need to "seal the deal" with voters, a phrase echoed by shadow Scottish secretary David Mundell ahead of last year's conference, when he said Mr Cameron's key task on becoming prime minister was to cement a relationship with Scottish voters who deserted the Conservatives in the 1990s.

Today, Mr Cameron will try to underline why he believes he has enough life experience to steer Britain through difficult times.

In a personal speech that will touch briefly on the loss of his eldest child, Ivan, who died this year after a long illness, he will acknowledge that "there is a steep climb ahead. But I tell you this: the view from the summit will be worth it".

Follow the speech live on scotsman.com from 2pm

He will say: "None of this will be easy. We will be tested. I will be tested.

"I'm ready for that – and so, I believe, are the British people."

But the Tory leader will also tell voters he "won't promise you things I cannot deliver".

This will be seen as a pointed dig at the Prime Minister's address to the Labour conference last week, in which he unveiled a mini-manifesto crammed with policies. In contrast, Mr Cameron believes now is not the time to make announcements without knowing where the funding will come from.

He will tell the Tory faithful: "I can look you in the eye and tell you that in a Conservative Britain, if you put in the effort to bring in a wage, you will be better off.

"If you save money your whole life, you'll be rewarded. If you start your own business, we will be right behind you. If you want to raise a family, we'll support you. If you're frightened, we'll protect you. If you risk your safety to stop a crime, we'll stand by you.

"If you risk your life to fight for your country, we will honour you."

He will continue: "Ask me what a Conservative government stands for and the answer is this… we will reward those who take responsibility and care for those who can't."

Sources close to the Tory leader said it would be an optimistic speech, but it would also set out as never before what Mr Cameron stands for.

They denied Mr Cameron had failed to detail his personal attributes to date, but said his speech would explain in more detail why he thought he was fit to govern.

If there is a Tory administration after the general election, it is expected to be beefed up with a series of appointments to the House of Lords. Mr Cameron will unveil ex-army chief General Sir Richard Dannatt as the latest recruit to his team today.

Mr Cameron's speech is expected to be the highlight of what has been a relatively positive conference for the Tories.

Despite the distraction of trying to avoid a public rift over Europe in the wake of Ireland's "Yes" vote on the Lisbon Treaty days before the conference opened, and the furore surrounding Mr Cameron being pictured with 140-a-bottle champagne on the day the Tories announced savage public-sector cuts, there have been few headaches for the Conservative leader, as the YouGov poll suggested.

Mr Cameron accepted yesterday that his austerity manifesto of pay freezes, spending cuts and delayed pensions would be unpopular, but he insisted it showed that the Tories were a government-in-waiting.

While voters would not be "crying with delight" at the prospect of working until 66 or losing baby bonds and child tax credits, it was essential for those seeking office to be honest about the scale of sacrifice needed to get Britain out of its financial hole, he said.

The Tory leader added that he would make "responsibility" the centrepiece of today's speech. He said: "I think the British public knows we are in a hole financially. We have got to drag ourselves out of it, and the only way is to recognise that we have to take some difficult decisions."

He said Mr Osborne's approach showed his party was ready to replace Labour. "It was an opposition behaving like a government when we've got a government behaving like an opposition," he added..

The shadow chancellor's speech on Tuesday set out how the Conservatives planned to save 23 billion over the life of the next parliament.

Yesterday, he said he did not want to be elected on a "false prospectus" that failed to make clear the action he intended to take to bring down the record 175bn state deficit.

Accusing the government of lying over the state of the public finances, Mr Osborne said: "What I said to people yesterday was the blunt truth. We have to get a grip on this."

And he added: "If you won an election on a false prospectus then it wouldn't be worth governing, because you would become so distrusted, so unpopular, so quickly that you wouldn't actually be able to take the country through the economic change that is necessary."

Unions, however, warned of possible strikes, and that the Tory strategy for the public sector risks alienating women who make up the majority of the staff in schools and hospitals.

If the Tories win the election, Mr Osborne said, he intends to deliver his first Budget within two months, setting the scene for a possible summer of discontent as the scale of the proposed 7bn-a-year cuts is revealed.

He was quizzed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme yesterday, an interview that provoked an extraordinary attack on the corporation from Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw.

Mr Bradshaw accused the BBC of being "biased" towards the Conservatives and criticised its "fawning" coverage. In a post on Twitter, he said: "Another feeble and biased Today programme rounded off with a fawning interview with a Tory pundit!"