Liberal Democrat conference 2011: live coverage

• Nick Clegg’s interview with Andrew Marr – summary • Sarah Teather’s speech – summary 1.37pm: Here’s a Lib Dem lunchtime summary. • Nick Clegg has denied claims that he plans to stand down as Lib Dem leader after one term in government . Commenting on claims to this effect in the Daily Mail, he said: “I intend to serve well beyond one term.” (See 9.19am.) • Nick Clegg and Vince Cable have said that they will only support the abolition of the 50p top rate of tax if it is replaced with an alternative wealth tax. “If the 50p does not raise money, as we had hoped, from the very, very wealthy, then of course we need to look at other ways to make sure that they pay their fair share,” Clegg said. Cable put it like this: “There has to be a tax measure in place which makes it absolutely clear that the wealthiest people in the country are making a contribution.” (See 9.19am and 11.36am • Hugh Grant, the actor, has criticised Scotland Yard for using the Official Secrets Act to try to force the Guardian to reveal details of how it obtained information about phone hacking. “Generally speaking in this I had come to the view, a lot of us victims had come to the view, that this new police investigation Weeting were good cops,” he told a Hacked Off press conference in Birmingham. “So for them to suddenly turn on their fellow ‘goodies’ in this battle is worrying and deeply mysterious.” Grant also dismissed the idea that his involvement in the campaign could lead to a career in politics. “No, I have no Ronald Reagan plans. I do not have that brainpower,” he said. And he dismissed the idea that he might play David Cameron on screen. “I only ever play one role,” he said. “Don’t be ridiculous.” • Sarah Teacher, the education minister, has announced that the pupil premium will double next year, rising to £1.25bn . (See 12.50pm.) • Lib Dem delegates have criticised the party for the “authoritarian” vetting procedures used at the conference. As the Press Association reports, in a heated and occasionally ill-tempered debate at the gathering in Birmingham, party members passed a motion condemning the system of police accreditation, arguing it infringed upon their human rights. 1.05pm: Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, used his speech to the conference to attack “the enemies of growth”. At one point he said these were Eurosceptics (because they are opposed to the extension of the single market) and Scottish nationalists (because they are opposed to the union with England). But later in the speech he suggested the enemies of growth included congested roads, slow railways, inadequate broadband and defenders of the current planning system (presumably the National Trust and the Daily Telegraph). Alexander’s speech was designed to show that the Lib Dems are taking on the enemies of growth. Here are the main points. • Alexander announced a “new” £500m “growing places fund”. This would use government money to kickstart infrastructure projects, he said. Whether this is really new money seems debatable. According to Lib Dem sources, the money will come from unallocated funds in the Department for Transport, the Department for Communities and the Treasury. (But unallocated does not mean it was not going to be spend, so it may be the case that Alexander is just shuffling money around from one budget to another. I’ll post more details when we get them.) Here’s how Alexander explained it. Half a billion pounds that will kick start developments that are currently stalled. Half a billion pounds that will deliver key infrastructure and create jobs. Putting local areas in the driving seat, to boost the local economy and get people into work. Providing flexibility to local areas to recycle funding for other projects once development is completed. In South Gloucestershire, £300 million of private investment, 3,000 jobs and 2,200 homes is being unlocked with £6 million of public money to build a link road. Just think what we will be able to do with £500 million. • He said that councils would be able to spend an extra £100m a year on housing as a result of his decision to cut the interest rate they have to pay central government. (That was how Alexander explained the public works loan board gobbledygook I mentioned earlier – see 12.38pm.) • He said high earners faced a new crackdown from HM Revenue and Customs. An extra 2,250 HMRC staff will start work on anti-evasion and anti-avoidance, he said. Some 1,000 of those jobs are being advertised this month. Alexander also said a new “affluent team” would start work soon targeting the 350,000 wealthiest taxpayers. Last year Alexander told the Lib Dems that measures like this would raise an extra £7bn over the course of this parliament. Today he said this initiative would raise £2bn this year alone. • He said the Lib Dems wanted to raise the income tax threshold to £12,500 in the next parliament. Raising it to £10,000 during this parliament will save most working people £700 a year, he said. • He was heckled when he accused Gordon Brown of spending too much. “Rubbish,” one delegate shouted. 12.50pm: The text of Sarah Teather ‘s speech to the conference is now on the Lib Dems’ website. There were several announcements in the speech, but what was also interesting was how she stressed the link between Lib Dem campaigning when the party was in opposition and the government’s decision to launch a pupil premium. Nick Clegg made a similar point in his speech to the Lib Dem rally last night – arguing that the low paid were only being taken out of tax because Lib Dem activists championed the idea. It’s as if Lib Dem ministers constantly need to remind delegates that being in government is worth it. Here are the main points. • Teather said the money available for the pupil premium would double next year, rising to £1.25bn. • She said the government would consult on allowing councils to offer 15 hours of early years education to a wider range of two-year-olds. Children from poor families (where children would be eligible for free school meals) already benefit, but Teather said children with special needs could benefit too. • She said the government would soon begin piloting voluntary parenting classes for every parent of a child under five in three or four areas. • She claimed the Lib Dems offered a “more thoughtful” approach to the riots than the other parties. 12.38pm: Danny Alexander probably needs a new speechwriter. He has just delivered an announcement. But his soundbite is unlikely to make it onto the lunchtime news. Here’s what he said: I can today announce my decision to reduce the interest rate offered to local authorities by the Public Works Loan Board to finance the £13bn of debt needed to leave the Housing Revenue Account subsidy system. I’ll post a full summary of the speech when I’ve read the full text. 12.23pm: Danny Alexander has just started his speech. Now. He started with a tribute to his grandfather, who is in the audience and who has been a Liberal since 1936. But then he had a couple of rocky moments. He told a rather lame ‘it’s all Balls” joke about Labour (which was very funny when Michael Heseltine first tried it in the 1990s, but which made us groan in the press room). And then, when he talked about Gordon Brown’s “unsustainable spending”, someone shouted “rubbish”. 12.00pm: I’ve just taken a look at the Daily Mail’s new rightwing comment website, RightMinds, to see if Simon Heffer and his colleagues are going to respond to Nick Clegg’s attack on their journalism. (See 9.19am.) Sadly, RightMinds doesn’t yet seem to have noticed it. 11.36am: Vince Cable , the business secretary, was on Sky earlier this morning. Three points stood out. Here they are. I’ve taken the quotes from PoliticsHome. • Cable confirmed that the Lib Dems could support the abolition of the 50p top rate if were replaced by an alternative wealth tax. “There has to be a tax measure in place which makes it absolutely clear that the wealthiest people in the country are making a contribution,” he said. • He insisted that was was not in favour of “bashing the rich”. He had to clarify his stance when asked about an interview he has given to the Sunday Times (paywall). This is how the Sunday Times reported his comments, under the headline: “Cable clamps down on top pay”. New powers are planned to block excessive pay packages for chief executives amid mounting government concern about runaway salaries. Vince Cable, the business secretary, wants to make it easier for ordinary shareholders to prevent FTSE 100 bosses being awarded huge sums if they are not delivering exceptional results. He claims British companies have a “particular problem” with exorbitant pay and says shareholders need to step in. “The performance of companies has not demonstrably improved, yet people are being paid an awful lot more. There’s something happening that isn’t right,” he said. And this is what Cable told Sky. I’m not actually in favour of bashing the rich – if we have entrepreneurs that create business, create wealth, create jobs, they should be rewarded. I have no issue with that. The issue about executive pay is a rather difficult one. What’s happened over the last decade is executive pay has risen massively at a time when ordinary share prices for the owners of companies… they haven’t risen at all and basic salaries haven’t risen. So something isn’t right here – there are rewards for failure and that’s what we have to deal with. And what the discussion paper is that we’re talking about is looking at the various options by which the owners of companies – the shareholders – can exercise more effective control. • He said that Britain should keep open the option of joining the euro in the “distant future”. This is not a time to think about joining the eurozone – they’ve got to sort out its problems. It could happen in the distant future – we don’t know what will happen – we’ve got to keep out options open. 11.30am: Sarah Teather has just said that next year the amount of money available for the pupil premium will double, rising to £1.25bn. 11.25am: Sarah Teather, the education minister, is delivering her speech to the conference now. I’ll post a summary once I’ve read her text. 11.22am: My colleague Paul Owen has just come back from a Q&A with Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem deputy leader who has produced a report on barriers to post-16 education for the government . He was answering questions on his report from Lib Dem delegates. Hughes made an interesting point about “take your daughter to work” days, as are common in the US. He said the trouble with this approach is that it only allows children to see the type of work their parents do. Hughes said: “I want the daughter of the cleaner to go to the accountant’s workplace and I actually would be quite keen for the daughter of the accountant to go to the cleaner’s workplace.” 10.48am: There is a lot of polling relating to the Lib Dems today. Here are some of the ones I’ve seen. • YouGov has a poll which it has done for the Sunday Times saying that the number of people who think the Lib Dems have a lot of influence in government has almost doubled since May. But it is still only 15% (compared with 8% in May). The full tables are here. And here’s an extract from Anthony Wells’ commentary on the poll at UK Polling Report. On the Liberal Democrats and the coalition, almost half (48%) of people think that entering the coalition was the wrong decision, a proportion mirrored amongst those who voted Lib Dem at the last election (although amongst the remaining Lib Dem supporters 71% think it was the right thing to do). There is a similar split in opinion on whether they should stay in the coalition now – 36% think they should stay (including 78% of their remaining supporters), 45% think they should leave. Despite Nick Clegg’s low approval ratings, 41% think he should stay as Lib Dem leader compared to 32% who would like him to stand down. A majority (63%) of people did not know who would make the best replacement leader for Clegg (unsurprisingly given the relative low profile of third party politicians – Vince Cable was the top choice, but with only 16%, and this was probably because he was the least anonymous). On the question of how much influence the Liberal Democrats have within government, most Conservative and Liberal Democrat supporters think they have a little influence, with Conservatives thinking that is about right or too much, and most Liberal Democrats thinking the party should wield greater influence. Labour supporters tend to see the Lib Dems as not having much influence in government. Overall they are seen as somewhat more influential than they were when we asked the same question in May – back then only 8% thought they had a lot of influence, that has now risen to 15%. 46% of people see the Conservatives as having benefited the most from the coalition, compared to just 19% who see the Liberal Democrats as the main beneficiaries. Looking to the future, 36% of people think that the Liberal Democrats have permanently damaged their party by entering the coalition, 23% think they will recover in time [once the coalition is over and] 21% think they will eventually benefit from having been in government. • ComRes has a poll in the Independent on Sunday says 68% of people expect the Lib Dems to do “much worse” at the next election. John Rentoul has full details on his blog. • The Lib Dem Voice website has published a poll of party members. It shows that 84% of members support the party being in coalition with the Conservatives, even though 59% of them think this will be bad for the party’s electoral prospects at the next election. Stephen Tall has more details here. Alert readers will note a common theme. Ordinary voters and party members both seem to agree that being in coalition is seriously damaging the Lib Dems. 10.33am: Do you want to be a Guardian Twitter correspondent? I’m looking for people who will be going to some of the Lib Dem fringe meetings at lunchtime and who will report what’s said on Twitter. Once I know who’s going to what, I’ll post links to the appropriate Twitter feeds on this blog. I can’t give you any money, I’m afraid, but you might pick up a few more Twitter followers. I’m particularly interested in the following fringe meetings, all starting at 1pm. Phone hacking: Hugh Grant, the actor, Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian editor, Don Foster, the Lib Dem MP and Jo Glanville, editor of Index on Censorship. Labour and the Lib Dems: Norman Lamb, Nick Clegg’s chief parliamentary advisers, and possibly Labour frontbenchers Sadiq Khan and Emily Thornberry on whether Labour and the Lib Dems should be working together. Europe: Charles Kennedy, the former Lib Dem leader, on the outlook for Europe’s economy. New Media and Democracy: Jeremy Browne, the Foreign Office minister, and Charlie Beckett, the media academic. State education: Sarah Teather, the education minister, Christine Blower, the general secretary of the NUT, and Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT. If you are going to any of these and fancy reporting them on Twitter, drop me a line on Twitter – I’m @AndrewSparrow – before 1pm and I’ll try to flag up your feed. 10.23am: The TUC are organising a rally in Birmingham today to highlight their opposition to the Lib Dems and the government’s spending cuts. This is what Frances O’Grady , the TUC general secretary, is going to say when she addresses it. We are sending a powerful message to the Lib Dems and to the government that we are strong and united, that we will fight their savage cuts, and that we will not let them destroy people’s jobs, services and livelihoods. 10.11am: Meanwhile, back in the conference …. The debate on getting delegates to submit personal data when applying for a conference pass so that they can be vetted by the police generated quite a lot of anger. By a healthy majority delegates passed a motion saying the conference “condemns the system of police accreditation adopted for this conference which requires party members to disclose personal data to the police and which is designed to enable the police to advise that certain party members should not be allowed to attend”. 9.19am: Nick Clegg has gone to war with the Daily Mail. That, I’m afraid, is probably the highlight from Clegg’s interview with Andrew Marr. Here are the key points. • Clegg insisted that he would not step down before the election. There has been a lot of speculation about his future, because he’s become an emblem for Lib Dem unpopularity, and there is a theory that he could become Britain’s next European commissioner before 2015, giving him an excuse to vacate the leadership. This was fuelled by the publication of extracts from a new biography of Clegg in the Daily Mail yesterday claiming that Clegg has told his wife, Mariam, that he will only serve one term. This is how Clegg responded when Marr asked him about it. Can I put this mildly? I really wouldn’t believe a word you read in the Daily Mail. This is the paper that called me a Nazi. They and other papers have got a bee in their bonnet about the coalition. They come up with drivel every single day. I’m in this because I believe it’s the right thing to do … Miriam supports me fully in this and I want to see us succeed in the coalition and beyond. Marr then asked him if he was remain as Lib Dem leader “beyond one term”. Clegg said he was. Absolutely. I intend to serve well beyond one term. There you go. Daily Mail wrong. • Clegg said he had “no idea” whether his aide, Polly Mackenzie, had drawn up a list of policies that the Lib Dems wanted to negotiate with the Conservatives for the second half of the coalition. This was another claim in the extract from Gerard’s book in the Mail yesterday. I have no idea,” he said. “I don’t control what people do on their desktops every single day.” • Clegg said he would oppose cutting the 50p top rate of tax “unilaterally”. In other words, it would be wrong to cut it before cutting taxes for low earners, he said. If Treasury research shows that the 50p rate really is not raising any money, then it should be replaced by a substitute tax on high earners. I don’t think it is morally or economically right to unilaterally lower the tax burden on the very wealthiest when we have not made much more progress, as I want us to, lowering taxes for millions of people on ordinary incomes … If the 50p does not raise money, as we had hoped, from the very, very wealthy, then of course we need to look at other ways to make sure that they pay their fair share. • He said the government would use capital spending to get more private sector investment into the economy. Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, would today be announcing a £500m investment in infrastructure, he said. And he mentioned the speech he gave last week saying infrastructure spending would be accelerated. There is this ludicrous caricature that because we’re balancing the books, the government can’t do anything, that somehow we’re turning the clock back to the 80s or the 30s. As a proportion of this country’s wealth, this government will be spending more in public spending at the end of this parliament after all these cuts, than Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were when they came into power. Clegg said said the government was getting “new money” into the economy. Through these innovations like the green investment bank, yes there is new money … We calculate about £18bn of new money will go into building, for instance, renewable energy infrastructure during this parliament. That is not to be sniffed at. Only £3bn of that is taxpayers’ money. We use that money to then make sure that the private sector brings in other money. 9.09am: Marr turns to the story in yesterday’s Daily Mail suggesting he would stand down after one term. Clegg says you should not believe everything you read in the Daily Mail. This is the paper that called him a Nazi, he says. That story was “drivel”? Q: So you are not just in this for one term? No, says Clegg. He wants to go on well beyond one term. Q: Are you negotiating a new coalition agreement? [Marr says Clegg's aide has drawn up a list of new demands.] Clegg says he has not seen such a list. Q: Isn’t it time for a new agreement? You’ve achieved some of the things in the first agreement. Clegg says that for the government to be successful, it has to have a “common purpose”. That common purpose involves sorting out the economy and promoting social mobility. Promoting social mobility is his passion. 9.04am: Marr turns to the human rights act. Q: Many ordinary people think the human rights act got in the way of punishment for those involved in rioting. Clegg says the human rights act is not the problem. The problem is that the criminal justice system has been too soft on prisoners who just come out of jail and reoffend. That’s why he supports Kenneth Clarke’s plans to encourage more rehabilitation. Q: What do you say to Tories who want to repatriate powers from the EU? Clegg says the single market was a British creation. It was set up by a British commissioner and championed by the Thatcher government. Clegg says he wants to widen that free market. Attacking directives is a “distraction”. There are directives he does not like. But the important thing is to extend the single market. Q: Do you still want to join the euro? Clegg says there is no prospect of this government joining the euro. Q: But you are still in principle in favour? Clegg says he is in principle in favour of recognising reality. Britain is a member of the EU. 8.59am: Marr is now talking about planning. Clegg says confidence is a key factor. The government needs to give people the confidence to start building homes. Marr turns to tax. Q: If the Treasury concludes that the 50p top rate of tax is not bringing money into government, can it go? Clegg says if it is concluded that the 50p rate is not raising money, then “of course” he would be in favour of finding other ways to get the wealthy to pay tax. But it would be “incomprehensible” to lower the tax rate for the wealthy when other people were being squeezed. Q: So will the 50p rate go? Clegg says it is up to George Osborne to take this decision. Q: But you would block its abolition if there is no substitute? Clegg says it would not be “morally right” to unilaterally cut taxes for the wealthy. His priority is to cut taxes for people on low incomes. And if the 50p rate is not raising any money, the government should find another way of ensuring that “the wealthiest pay their fair share”. Clegg says the Lib Dems are on the side of the millions of people who “work hard and play by the rules”. 8.54am: Nick Clegg is being interviewed by Marr now. He is talking about the government’s plans to use capital spending to promote growth. Q: You’re cutting spending. Taxes are high. So where is the money going to come from for new infrastructure projects? Clegg says the government is spening £700bn a year. There is a “ludicrous caricature” that the government cannot do anything. At the end of the cuts, the government will still be spending more as a proportion of GDP than Tony Blair’s government was when it came into office. Q: How much extra money will there be? Clegg says billions of pounds will be invested in infrastructure. These are projects the government has already announced. Q: But this is not new money, is it? Clegg says government spending on capital projects will release extra money from other sources. For example, spending on renewable energy will release a total of £18bn. 8.47am: It’s Groundhog day. This morning the BBC are leading on the news that Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, will use his speech to the conference to announce a crackdown on tax evasion. Here’s an extract from the story on their website. More than 2,000 tax inspectors will be recruited to crack down on tax evasion among the wealthiest people in the UK, a Liberal Democrat minister has said. Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told the BBC he would announce the move at his party’s conference in Birmingham later. He will also promise £500m to kick-start stalled public works projects and £100m for council housing in England. Does that ring any bells? It did with me, because this is how the Guardian reported Alexander’s speech to the conference last year. The Liberal Democrats today promised an attack on those who have made tax evasion a lifestyle choice, as the party announced government plans to raise an extra £7bn by 2014-15 by tackling tax avoidance and fraud. The Treasury would be “ruthless with wealthy individuals and business who think paying extra tax is an optional extra”, vowed its chief secretary, Danny Alexander. Much of the clampdown will involve more intensive scrutiny of those liable for paying the new 50p tax band introduced by the Labour government. Revenue and Customs currently looks at 5,000 high net-worth individuals, but will expand that number to 150,000. He also promised a more robust criminal deterrent against tax evasion by increasing the number of criminal prosecutions by Revenue and Customs fivefold. Alexander revealed the Treasury will strengthen a team of investigators to catch those hiding money offshore. 8.34am: It’s the first full day of the Lib Dem conference and we’ve got a packed agenda, starting with Nick Clegg on the Andrew Marr show shortly. Here’s the agenda for today. 9am Nick Clegg is interviewed on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show. 9am: Delegates debate a motion on the accreditation arrangements for this year’s party conference. Some members are angry about the fact that they were asked to submit personal data so that they could be vetted by the police. 9.45am: A short Q&A session on gender balance and diversity in the party. 10am: Alistair Carmichael , the chief whip, Lord McNally , the leader in the Lords and Fiona Hall, the leader in the European parliament, host a Q&A on party business. 10.55am: Sean Brennan, the leader of Sutton council, delivers a presentation. 11.15am: Sarah Teather , the education minister, delivers a speech. 11.35am: Delegates debate a motion saying part-time students should not have to start repaying their tuition fee loan until they have finished their degree. Under the government’s plans, part-time students have to start repaying three and a half years after the start of their course. 11.45am: Hugh Grant , the actor, and Evan Harris , the former Lib Dem MP, hold a press conference with Hacked Off, the group campaigning against phone hacking. 12.20pm: Danny Alexander , the chief secretary to the Treasury, delivers a speech. 2.30pm: Delegates debate a motion calling for the pupil premium to be beefed up and turned into an education credit, which would be more generous and would be available to a wider range of disadvantaged children. 3.30pm: Teather, Simon Hughes, the deputy leader and the government’s advocate for access to education, Steve Webb, the pensions minister, and Lady Hussein-Ece, a commissioner at the equality and human rights commission, take part in a Q&A session on social mobility. 4.20pm: Tim Farron , the Lib Dem president, delivers a speech. 4.40pm: Delegates debate a motion calling for the partial decriminalisation of drugs. As usual, I’ll be covering all the conference events on the blog, including looking at the papers, which I’ll get round to later. I’ll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm and an afternoon one at about 5pm. My colleague Paul Owen will then take over the blog and keep it going into the evening. Liberal Democrat conference 2011 Liberal Democrat conference Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg Andrew Sparrow guardian.co.uk

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