Clegg warns Osborne that top rate tax is staying
In a speech aimed at boosting Lib Dem members’ morale, Nick Clegg announces that Paddy Ashdown will lead the party’s election campaign and outlines the party’s difference from its coalition partners.
Word cloud above shows the words used most by the Liberal Democrat leader during his speech.
Nick Clegg arrived on stage in Brighton to a long applause by the party faithful. He acknowledged that the last two years in government had been ridden with difficult decisions, but said there was no going back to a “party of protest” and that it was time to look ahead to its mission of “national renewal”.
The speech included a few digs at the Conservatives and Mr Clegg said that he will not approve a lowering of the top rate income tax from 45p in this parliament.
But he stood by the previous budget, saying that tough economic decisions are necessary. “If Plan A really was as rigid and dogmatic as our critics claim, I’d be demanding a Plan B, and getting Danny and Vince to design it. But it isn’t,” he said. He added that delegates were right to reject the call for us to change our economic course in a vote earlier in the week.
“There are leaders’ speeches to the party and to the country. This was to the party…The immediate reaction amongst folk in the hall was that it left most of them with their sense of purpose reinforced. But their medium term political hopes for their party in 2015 were still quite nervous.”
Read more on Political Editor Gary Gibbon’s blog
All of the tough economic decisions were part of a “broader agenda”, Mr Clegg added. “In short, national renewal. That is our mission. Our policies either serve that purpose, or they serve none at all.”
David Laws, who has just returned to government, told Channel 4 News it was a “pretty serious speech” that was appropriate for “serious economic times”.
“We’re a long way into the journey of accepting the responsibilities and decisions of power,” he said. “We are also on the journey of restoring the economy after the mess we were left with.
“By the next general election people will see that not only have we delivered Liberal Democrat policies in government but we have restored economic growth and made substantial steps to reducing the debt.”
No longer opposition
In a rallying call to the rest of the party, the Liberal Democrat leader urged delegates not to look in the rear view mirror, and said that there was no going back to the party of the past. However when this was followed by an announcement that former party leader Paddy Ashdown would be leading the party’s election campaign; mocking tweets soon followed.
It set out that the Liberal Democrats are the only party to combine economic credibility and they can be relied upon to deliver fairness too. Danny Alexander MP
Acknowledging the difficulties of being in a coalition government, Mr Clegg nonetheless said the party was no longer one of opposition, but “one of three parties in government”.
“If voters want a party of opposition – a ‘stop the world I want to get off’ party – they’ve got plenty of options, but we are not one of them,” he said.
Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the treasury, told Channel 4 News: “We are on a journey from being the party of opposition for too long to the party we are in government, and that’s something our membership are very comfortable with.
“It set out that the Liberal Democrats are the only party to combine economic credibility and they can be relied upon to deliver fairness too.”
‘Party of education‘
The Liberal Democrat leader also announced a new education policy, the “catch-up premium” – an additional £500 for every child who leaves primary school below the expected level in English or maths – and said that the Liberal Democrats were the “party of education”.
In a move that many Liberal Democrats will be pleased to hear, the party leader made a dig at the Conservatives for what he called their ‘PR’ motivated green policy. He dismissed the idea that going green is bad for growth and pledged to hold the Conservatives to their green promises.
A Channel 4 News survey of tweets written immediately after Nick Clegg’s speech found that the vast majority had a negative response. Of tweets that expressed an opinion of the Liberal Democrat leader, 85 per cent tweeted a negative response while only 15 per cent tweeted a positive reaction.
However party members who attended the speech appeared emboldened. “It was a confident speech, it betrayed no concern about the party’s problems,” Simon Hughes MP told Channel 4 News. “A lot of the media were saying Nick was going to have a tough week but it hasn’t been tough, it has been great – just look at the reception there was in here.”
