His usual stump speech to Tory conference is 30minutes of unscripted knockabout. “That is a better system”, the Prime Minister told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show.
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On Wednesday the prime minister will mount his own land grab on Labour terrain.
He was challenged over his plans as potential candidates in the race took their turns on the Conservative Party conference stage in Manchester.
Mr Crabb also accused Labour of “abandoning the working class” – while his government forces through repressive new legislation which will virtually outlaw workers’ right to strike. It’s not about philosophy or theory: it’s about the practical economic security of the people of this country.
In his interview Mr Cameron refused to be drawn on who he would tip as next leader but said he had a “very talented bunch” behind him and that he was glad that they were being noticed.
In a nod to the City, Johnson said that while he is “still just about the only politician to speak out in favour of bankers”, Tories “cannot ignore the gulf in pay packets that yawns wider year by year”.
Oh and it’s likely that those with triplets or who have twins after a first child will receive the full amount.
“I believe we can make this era – these 2010s – a defining decade for our country”, he is expected to say. Asked if that meant serving all five years?, he replied: “Oh yeah”. “That being black, or Asian, or female, or gay doesn’t mean you’ll be treated differently”.
He said it was about Britain having “control” and being an internally united country.
There should be no “passive tolerance” of the “politics of grievance” or segregation within British communities, and the authorities should not be “so frightened of causing offence” that they fail to act on forced marriages and female genital mutilation, he said.
“And be in no doubt: if you are teaching intolerance, we will shut you down”.
Furrowed brows at the Daily Mail betray a distinct dread that has been brewing since David Cameron began his (very successful) “detoxification” of the Tory brand. He’s served this party.
Mr Cameron said Britain had to be sure services could cope with immigration and that levels had been too high.
Mr Cameron told the conference that he had his bags “half-packed” as he prepared for the election results in May, but “as dawn rose, a new light – a bluer light – fell across our isles”.
This was an assembly of cynics, intent on imposing yet more savage cuts, while insisting that they are the party of working people.
And he claimed that, under the Conservatives, “we’re on the brink of something special in our country”.
Such warnings did not phase Cameron, who instead exclaimed, “Wages are rising”.
“But we’re not there yet”.
He said: “A Greater Britain doesn’t just need a stronger economy, it needs a stronger society”.
He also promised to slash £12bn from the welfare budget and this goes a long way to doing that.
He will say the government will amend planning policy to encourage developers to build affordable housing to meet heavy demand – part of the Conservatives’ drive to shed their image as a party that only looks after the rich and privileged and to attract support from lower earners.
He repeated his ambition to make every state school an academy in order to raise aspirations among pupils.
“You can’t have true opportunity without real equality”, he said.
He unfairly conflated the agitators outside the conference with the whole of the Labour Party.
He said: “I know there is a generation of young people who can’t remember communism and who think it might be a good idea to ferment anti-capitalism as if it were a few fruity alcopop”.
The London mayor, who has been leaning towards the leave camp in recent months, will wait until David Cameron finalises his European Union negotiation reforms before deciding which side to endorse. Will he be a vote magnet outside his Home Counties comfort zone?
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He insisted that more spending cuts were required to complete the battle for economic recovery at a time when Labour had “given up any sensible, reasonable, rational arguments on the economy”.
