Business | Economy
UK Conservatives face pressure to chart growth map
Ruling party opens conference tomorrow
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 October 1, 2011
London: Britain's ruling Conservatives face pressure to massage their tough austerity message and explain how they intend to get business flourishing when they hold their annual conference this week against a backdrop of faltering economic growth.
The centre-right Conservatives, in power for 17 months in a coalition with the smaller Liberal Democrats, have seen their poll ratings hold steady despite public spending cuts and days of rioting in August in several cities, including Manchester, where Prime Minister David Cameron will gather his party.
Tens of thousands of trade unionists plan a protest there tomorrow over government spending cuts, coinciding with the opening of the conference, an uncomfortable reminder of the hardships many face as Britain sorts out its public finances.
The coalition has insisted it will stick with its austerity programme, warning that any deviation risks plunging Britain into a Greek-style debt crisis. Some of Cameron's supporters are concerned that the stern tone risks losing voters' sympathies.
"There is a suspicion that the government has only got one tune," member of parliament Kwasi Kwarteng said.
"It's the right tune in terms of the deficit but people will expect a positive message in terms of how to grow the economy," added Kwarteng, co-author with other new Conservative lawmakers of After the Coalition, a book setting out a strategy for the party to govern alone after the next election due in 2015.
Business lobby the CBI has called for more investment on infrastructure such as toll roads, with private companies bearing the initial costs in exchange for a share of revenues.
Other suggestions to boost growth include tax breaks for start-up companies. The government itself has proposed raising the motorway speed limit as one way of boosting the economy.
‘Party of the rich'
Neil O'Brien of the Policy Exchange think-tank said the Conservatives, or Tories, should do more to reassure Britons facing rising unemployment, higher inflation and stagnant wages.
"The Tories have come a long way under David Cameron but polling suggests the public still view the Conservatives as the ‘party of the rich'," said O'Brien. "Cameron must tackle this perception head-on by announcing measures aimed at the ordinary person suffering from job insecurity, rising gas and electricity bills and an increase in fuel and food prices."
Gathering amid a backdrop of crisis
The Conservative Party conference opens amid a rolling crisis in the Eurozone, a key trading partner, and will end as the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee meets on Thursday, a meeting which could decide to pump more cash into the faltering economy.
Party chairwoman Sayeeda Warsi said the Conservatives would stress that it was taking the steps needed to tackle a record budget deficit.
"There is confidence in our plan around the world," Warsi said.
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