Tories pledge to dismantle big government and give power back to the people
Cameron says in speech that labour has made poor people poorer
London: David Cameron put families at the heart of his vision for Britain on Thursday night with a vow to dismantle Labour's big government and let people to take power over their own lives.
The Tory leader said he would get the country "back on her feet" by rewarding those who worked hard and acted responsibly — and caring only for those who genuinely could not.
Ahead of a highly personal conference speech — his last before the election — Cameron said he was aiming at voters who were asking of him and his party: "Why us? Why now? Why me?"
His answer was a traditional Conservative one: The Tories would put their faith in "family, community and country" rather than ever bigger and more expensive interventions by Labour's bloated state.
"It is about everyone taking responsibility. The more that we as a society do, the less we will need government to do," he said.
Promising to reward marriage with tax breaks and abolish the penalty against couples in the benefits system, Cameron said he "cannot be neutral" on the issue of family.
"Society begins at home. Responsibility begins at home," he insisted.
In the most powerful section of an address that was short on flair but rich in rhetoric borrowed from Martin Luther King, the Bible and Margaret Thatcher, Cameron attacked Labour's record on social mobility.
He said the Tories were as angry today about the fact that the benefits trap meant the poor kept as little as 4p for every extra pound they earned as they were in the 1970s about high tax rates on the rich.
In an audacious attempt to wrestle Labour's traditional claim to be the party leading the fight against poverty — and counter the attack on the Tories as a party of "toffs" — Cameron demanded: "Who made the poorest poorer? Who left youth unemployment higher? Who made inequality greater?
"No, not the wicked Tories — you Labour, you're the ones that did this to our society. So don't you dare lecture us about poverty.
"You have failed and it falls to us, the modern Conservative party, to fight for the poorest who you have let down."
