Cameron battles to get Tories back on track

Published on Sunday 28 February 2010 21:52

DAVID Cameron appealed for voters to free themselves from the "dark depression" of Gordon Brown yesterday as he sought to get the Tories' election campaign back on track.

Amid more evidence that his poll advantage is evaporating, Mr Cameron admitted his party faced a "real fight" to win power and the outcome would be "close".

But he insisted that only the Tories had the radical economic and social policies to guide the country to the "bright light" at the end of the tunnel it was currently in.

The plea came in an impassioned 40-minute speech to the party's pre-election spring conference in Brighton, delivered without notes.

Painting the forthcoming battle as a choice between himself and Mr Brown, Mr Cameron launched an excoriating personal assault on the Prime Minister's "bossiness" and inflated ego.

"What sort of genius is it that doubles the national debt? What sort of genius is it that takes one of the best pension systems in the world and wrecks it?" he said. "That's not genius, that's incompetence, and, at this coming election, we are going to out your record, and tear it apart piece by piece."

Mr Cameron insisted the public knew that another five years of Mr Brown would be a "disaster", and warned that tensions between ministers were "dragging the country down". He said: "Another five years of spending and bloat and waste and debt and taxes.

"Another five years of failing to get to grips with our big social problems; another five years and the politics of that big top-down, bossy 'I know best' sort of approach; and another five years of a government that is so dysfunctional, so divided, so weak.

"You have got a bunch of ministers that can't work with him, but can't get rid of him; you have got a Prime Minister who can't work with them and can't make his government work. They are locked in this dangerous dance of death that is dragging our whole country down and it is only the Conservative Party that can give people the hope of a different future."

The Conservatives had a "patriotic duty" to win the election so they could put the country on the path to recovery, according to Mr Cameron. He said: "I want you to think of the incredible dark depression of another five years of Gordon Brown and say: 'No. No, we are not going to do that'."

The Tory leader tempered his damning assessment of the economic "deep hole" the UK was in by stressing his "optimism" about its future prospects.

He said the Tories would create an environment where business could thrive, reform welfare so people got a "hand up rather than a handout", create schools that gave genuine opportunity to all, and cut the costs of politics.

He also pledged to make the country more "family friendly" than ever before, and surprised many by stating that the Tory election manifesto would include details of controversial plans for recognising marriage in the tax system.

He sought to reassure activists who have become increasingly nervous at his failure to "seal the deal" with the electorate, despite Britain suffering the worst recession in 60 years and fierce bouts of Labour infighting: "This election was always going to be close. This election was always going to be a real choice: Labour or Conservative; Gordon Brown or me." He rounded off his address with an exhortation for activists to "get out there and win it for Britain".

Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper branded Mr Cameron's speech "vacuous". She said: "This was David Cameron's chance to answer the serious questions about how he would cut the deficit this year, and why he would put the recovery at risk. And he chose to duck it with a vacuous salesman's pitch instead."