Chancellor Philip Hammond used his speech at the Conservative party conference to slate Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and to claim “free markets” are needed for Britain to prosper.
After walking through the crowd with prime minister Theresa May, as Journey’s hit ‘Don’t stop believin’ played, Mr Hammond took to the stage to say businesses should be allowed to prosper in order to deliver a strong economy that pays for our own public services.
He announced a further £300m investment in transport in the north and to tackle the belief among those trying to climb onto the property ladder that the system was rigged in favour of those who already own their own home.
Mr Hammond announced an extra £10bn in funding to provide loans under the Help to Buy scheme through to 2021.
He said this would help an estimated 130,000 more homebuyers over the next few years and "renewing our Conservative commitment to Britain’s property owning democracy for the next generation."
Speaking at the Conservative Party conference today (2 October), Mr Hammond also admitted Brexit was a challenge and Britain’s productivity needed to be increased.
He said: "As I have said before, [people] didn’t vote to get poorer or to reduce trade with our closest neighbours and biggest trading partners. The British people have chosen independence, over integration.
"And as we implement their decision, we must use that independence in our nation’s best interest to protect our jobs, to strengthen our economy and to safeguard our prosperity.
"We are leaving the European Union, not leaving Europe.
"Our economic future will remain closely linked with the EU for many good reasons.
"But our political future will be our own. Our EU partners can go their way, we wish them well. But we will not join them on a voyage to ever closer union.
"We must resolve the short term challenge of uncertainty around this process by accelerating the talks and delivering a time-limited interim period of around two years for our businesses to adjust.
"The future prize is great. If we get this right – Britain will have a bright future beyond Brexit. But to get to it, we must be clear-eyed about the challenges along our way."
But Mr Hammond used the bulk of his speech to slate Labour leader Mr Corbyn.
Mr Hammond kicked off his speech by referring to the speech former Tory party leader William Hague gave as a teenager at the Conservative conference in 1977.
Mr Hague spoke about the need for people to be free from the hands of the state and Mr Hammond said it is necessary to make those arguments again so that people don’t fall for the arguments on Mr Corbyn.
He said he understood the reluctance people had about talking about the 1970s but then went on to discuss how what state control did to industry in that decade.
Mr Hammond said the trade unions knew that under state control their employer would never go bust so the losses piled up and the Labour government of the 1970s had to borrow money.
He said inflation reached 26.9 per cent in 1975 and top talent went abroad as the top rate of income tax was 83 per cent.
Mr Hammond said: “It was a resolutely negative agenda of failed ideas dredged up from a bygone era.
“They say politics is about the clash of ideas so we say to Corbyn ‘Bring it on.’ We will defeat them by the power of argument, by our logic, by the power of history.
“Nor will we be cowered by intimidation whether it is on the streets or online.
“What is right for Britain now is keeping Jeremy Corbyn far away from power and even a sniff of it. He is a clear and present danger to our economy.
“It falls to us, in this great party, to keep Britain safe from the return of hard left socialism.”
He reflected on how the consensus in politics on importance of business and entrepreneurship for 35 years was now sadly over.
Mr Hammond said: “We will do it by being the party of progress. The party that embraces the future. The party that makes a clear commitment to the next generation that they will be better off than us.
“A Conservative government will not let you down.”
But he acknowledged that the Conservative party needed to do more to listen to the nation’s fears and concerns and the pressure on living standards.
Mr Hammond said: “It’s a wicked and cynical business offering superficially simple solutions to complex challenges.
“But colleagues, we need to listen to those fears and concerns, we need to acknowledge the weariness at the long slog back from Labour’s recession, the pressure on living standards caused by slow wage growth and a spike in inflation.
“The frustration among the young who fear that the combination of student debt and sky high rents and house prices will condemn them never to access the opportunities of property ownership their parents enjoyed.”
Earlier today (2 October), work and pensions secretary David Gauke delivered a speech that tackled issues with the universal credit but only mentioned pensions in passing to flag how many people had been automatically enrolled.
Mr Gauke confirmed the universal credit rollout will continue but pledged to tackle delays to those in need receiving cash.
Universal credit is a single monthly payment for people in or out of work and replaces some of the other benefits and tax credits that were previously available.
Speaking at the Conservative Party conference today (2 October), Mr Gauke said he would stick with the timetable for the roll-out of the benefits shake-up but would ensure claimants were not forced to use food banks because of the mandatory six-week wait to receive money.
He said those in urgent need could get a payment the same working day.
emma.hughes@ft.com
