Britain, October 08: British Conservative leader David Cameron has declared he is “ready” to take power, closing his party’s annual conference for what he hopes will be its last time in opposition.
With polls putting the centre-right party on course to win a general election due by June, Mr Cameron warned of tough choices as Britain emerges from recession – but argue that his party can bring the country through.
“None of this will be easy. We will be tested. I will be tested. I’m ready for that – and so, I believe, are the British people,” Mr Cameron said.
The 42-year-old moderniser has transformed the opposition Conservatives in four years as leader.
He took over after three election defeats and the party is now well ahead of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour party in the polls.
Mr Cameron used his speech to spelling out what a Conservative government would do and how it would change Britain.
Building on a range of cuts unveiled this week to tackle Britain’s deficit, which party officials have said are only some of the measures required to deal with the recession fallout, Mr Cameron warned of a “steep climb ahead”.
“Don’t get me wrong, I have no illusions. If we win this election, it is going to be tough,” he said. But he added: “I tell you this – the view from the summit will be worth it.”
In his speech, the Tory leader reiterated a promise to hold a referendum on the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty if it has not yet been ratified, and “not let matters rest there” if it has already in law.
The pledge has caused concern in Brussels and sparked tensions among Conservatives this week, with Mr Cameron struggling to impose order as senior Tories stoked speculation about what they would do if the treaty is already in law.
Foreign affairs spokesman William Hague won loud applause from delegates when he repeated his opposition to the new post of a European president that would come into force under the treaty.
“We seek a European Union that acts by agreement among nations, rather than by placing its own president or foreign minister above any nation,” he said.
The Conservatives are also expected to confirm today that the former head of the British army, Richard Dannatt, will act as their policy adviser and could even be made a minister if they win the next election.
Mr Dannatt has repeatedly criticised Mr Brown’s government for not giving enough resources to the war in Afghanistan and Conservative defence spokesman Liam Fox repeated this line in his speech to conference.
Mr Fox attacked the government’s “appalling failure” to define Britain’s mission in Afghanistan, which he said was to stop it becoming a safe haven for terrorism, a failure which risked undermining support for the deployment.
“If we were to leave Afghanistan prematurely, it would be a shot in the arm for every jihadist globally,” Mr Fox told the conference earlier.
The Conservatives have previously said they would be “sympathetic” to a request for more troops in Afghanistan but primarily for training Afghan forces to take over their own security.
—Agencies