PM: We'll Come Through If We Hold Firm

Cameron Firm On Tough Resolutions

Updated: 4:54pm UK, Thursday 07 March 2013

By Jon Craig, Chief Political Correspondent, in Keighley

David Cameron came to Bronte country to talk about human emotions … or rather the impact on them of these tough economic times.

"I know things are tough right now," he said at the beginning of his big speech on the economy in a smart, modern workshop at the Cinetic Landis factory, heading up hill out of Keighley towards the moors.

"Families are struggling with the bills at the end of the month. Some are just a pay cheque away from going into the red. Parents are worried about what the future holds for their children."

Spoken with Bronte-like passion.

It was as if he wanted to answer straightaway the criticism of his opponents - and some Conservative MPs - that he's a rich, posh boy who doesn't understand the hardship facing ordinary families.

But after the "I feel your pain" opening, he ended his speech with a defiant message on the economy, rejecting calls for a U-turn on spending cuts and repeating Margaret Thatcher's famous slogan: "There is no alternative."

"This month's Budget will be about sticking to the course," said the Prime Minister. "Because there is no alternative that will secure our country's future."

Aah, but there is, his critics are arguing. And those critics now include Vince Cable, according to Labour, after his New Statesman article calling for more borrowing to fund more capital spending.

But David Cameron wasn't having any of that.

After he said in his speech that he was prepared to "roll up his sleeves and fight" opponents of various Government initiatives like the HS2 rail project, I asked him in his Q&A if he would do the same with his Business Secretary.

No need, he said, somewhat unconvincingly. "He agrees with the Government's policy," he said. "The article he wrote in the New Statesman was cleared and approved by the Treasury."

Really? By Danny Alexander, perhaps, but not George Osborne, I fancy.

Vince Cable's intervention rather took the gloss off the PM's speech in the big, shiny workshop in this highly impressive machine tools factory, where they're working seven days a week to meet their export demands from China and other countries.

The Prime Minister was clearly intending, less than a fortnight before the Budget, to give a few pointers to the Chancellor's statement on March 20. There would be more help for people to get mortgages, he hinted, and possibly more help for motorists hit by rising fuel bills.

He described himself as a "low tax Conservative" and said the only way to cut taxes was to cut the deficit. Labour, he said, believed there was a "magic money tree". From branding Ed Miliband a "croupier in the casino" at PMQs to a "magic money tree". Colourful!

But the main thrust of his defiant message came at the end of his speech, when he concluded by insisting the Government would "stick to the course" because it was about "doing the right thing".

Why? Because, he said, if there were to be good jobs, good public services and money to look after people in their old age, the deficit had to be cut and there must be no more "squandering billions on welfare for people who could work".

This speech came just a few days after Mr Cameron pledged in a Sunday Telegraph article that there would be no "lurch to the Right".

And yet here he was repeating Mrs Thatcher's "There is no alternative" slogan.

But then Margaret Thatcher has always been David Cameron's heroine, in true Wuthering Heights style.

Was Maggie Catherine Earnshaw to Dave's Heathcliffe, I wonder? No, it was Gordon Brown who was likened to the brooding Heathcliffe.

Wait a minute, the PM also talked here about "tough choices", a Tony Blair phrase.

Perhaps Dave is Jane Eyre to Blair's Mr Rochester? No, Frank Field compared Gordon Brown to him too.

Many Tory MPs see the Prime Minister as a flawed hero these days, however.

No wonder he only stayed in Bronte country for about an hour and a half.

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