- .PM predicts the next election will be re-run of '92 when Major beat Kinnock
- .Lord Kinnock led the cheers for Miliband at last week's Labour conference
- .Comments came as PM announced plans for married couples' tax break
By SIMON WALTERS and GLEN OWEN
David Cameron has dubbed Ed Miliband ‘the new Neil Kinnock’ in the wake of the Labour leader’s pledge to bring back 1970s-style energy price freezes.
And he mocked Mr Miliband’s 8,000-word speech – made without notes – saying sarcastically: ‘He did well to remember Labour’s entire 1983 Election manifesto.’
The Prime Minister’s private prediction that the next Election, now just 18 months away, will be a re-run of the 1992 contest in which John Major defeated Neil Kinnock, came on the eve of the Tory Party conference in Manchester.
Visiting time: David Cameron, the Prime Minister, and his wife Samantha gear up for the Conservative conference with a trip to the children's cancer ward at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford yesterday
Mr Major’s victory came after Labour’s lead in the polls was undermined by claims that their economic policy was too Left-wing and lacked credibility.
Mr Miliband’s ‘war on big business,’ as the Prime Minister sees it, has convinced him that he will be able to portray the Labour leader as the new Kinnock.
Mr Kinnock led the cheers at the conclusion of Mr Miliband’s Brighton speech last week.
The Prime Minister also compared Mr Miliband’s policies with the controversial Election manifesto of Labour’s Michael Foot in 1983.
That was dubbed the ‘longest suicide note in history’ and included a vow to scrap Britain’s nuclear weapons. It led to Margaret Thatcher winning a landslide majority of 144 when the country went to the polls in June that year.
Leading the cheers: Labour leader Ed Miliband clasps hands with his predecessor Neil Kinnock, who famously lost to John Major's Tories in 1992 despite going into the general election with a healthy lead in the polls
The second longest suicide note in history? The PM mocked Mr Miliband¿s 8,000-word speech to his party conference, saying sarcastically: 'He did well to remember Labour¿s entire 1983 Election manifesto'
Mr Cameron made his remarks as he announced plans for some married couples to get tax breaks worth up to £200 a year.
A total of four million couples in marriages and civil partnerships, where both parties are basic-rate taxpayers, will benefit from a £1,000 transferable tax allowance from April 2015.
Labour critics said that an incentive that worked out at £3.85 a week was unlikely to persuade many people to tie the knot.
Mr Cameron greets the Tory faithful in Manchester: Mr Cameron made his remarks as he announced plans for couples in marriages and civil partnerships who pay basic-rate tax to get breaks worth up to £200 a year
Questions to answer: Mr Cameron was, on the eve of the conference, challenged by a leading Conservative MP to break free from the party¿s 'Stockholm syndrome' of pandering to Left-wing opinion for approval
REVOLT OVER MARRIAGE TAX PLAN AS IT'S BRANDED 'SOCIAL ENGINEERING'
David Cameron’s pledge of tax breaks for marriage was last night branded ‘social engineering’ by one of his own Tory MPs.
The Prime Minister this weekend unveiled a £600million plan to give millions of couples tax relief to prove the party believed in marriage.
But embarrassingly for the Prime Minister, the new flagship policy was under open attack from one ‘happily married’ Tory MP within 24 hours of the announcement.
In a scathing response, Wycombe MP Steve Baker dismissed the idea as a misuse of the tax system.
He said: ‘Fiddling with the tax code to promote a policy of social engineering is not where I would go. I am a big supporter of marriage but I don’t think we should be using the tax system to promote the things that we like.’
Mr Cameron was also challenged by a leading Conservative MP to break free from the party’s ‘Stockholm syndrome’ of pandering to Left-wing opinion for approval.
Rising star Kwasi Kwarteng said the Tories should now stop concentrating on ‘detoxifying’ its image and being ‘apologetic’ for the faults of previous Conservative governments.
Rising star: Kwasi Kwarteng said he was not afraid to back a ‘less intrusive, smaller state’ and mocked colleagues ‘terrified’ of being that labelled that way
Backbench MP Mr Kwarteng, who, like the Prime Minister went to Eton, also admitted he would ‘love’ to get a ministerial job.
In an interview for Total Politics magazine, Mr Kwarteng invoked the so-called Stockholm syndrome – in which a hostage takes the side of his captors – to suggest his party was still in hock to Left-wing opinion.
He said: ‘For too long . . . we’ve been captured by the Left and we’re apologetic about some of the positions we hold, on things like the economy, or welfare, or immigration.
‘If you believe you’ve lost the battle and you have this sort of Stockholm syndrome, it limits your ability to win big majorities.’
Mr Kwarteng said he was not afraid to back policies for a ‘less intrusive, smaller state’ and mocked Tory colleagues ‘who go nuts’ and were ‘terrified’ of being that labelled that way.
He also appeared to suggest that Mr Cameron’s famous project to detoxify his party’s image had run its course.
Mr Kwarteng, a leading member of the party’s Free Enterprise Group, said: ‘The whole notion of detoxification of the Conservative brand, I accept the idea, but people are sick of politicians trying to appear to be things they’re not.
‘Your first question should be, “What is right?” – not “What do I think is going to get me elected?’’ ’
NEW WAR ON KNIFE CRIME AND RAPISTS LET OFF WITH WARNINGS
Rapists and knife-wielding thugs will no longer be let off with a warning under tough new laws to be announced this week.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling, writing in today’s Mail on Sunday, pledges: ‘There will be no more cautions for rape, for burglary, for possession of a firearm.
'And there will be no more cautions for an adult caught carrying a knife. I want to see those people in court facing charges.
‘If someone out in the town centre is carrying a knife in their pocket with no plausible excuse, a slap on the wrist seems like soft justice in the extreme. Knife crime is a blight on our society.’
More than 500,000 people have been let off with cautions for serious offences in the past 15 years, including more than 400 sex offenders.
The out-of-court penalty does not count as a conviction and does not have to be disclosed to employers.
They are popular with police as they count towards solved crimes and are quick.
Mr Grayling’s move is likely to please delegates at the Tory conference looking for ‘red meat’ law and order policies in the run-up to the next election.
20% OF TORY COUNCILLORS WANT ELECTORAL PACT WITH UKIP
More than one in five Tory councillors think David Cameron should form a pact with UKIP at the next election, to avoid splitting the vote and handing victory to Labour.
The poll, for BBC Sunday Politics, comes as Nigel Farage prepares to appear at the Tory conference. The UKIP leader, who is barred from inside the secure zone, will address three fringe meetings, one titled ‘Conservative and UKIP: enemies or allies?’, and organised by the Bruges Group, whose previous president was the late Baroness Thatcher.
He will speak alongside Tory MP Bill Cash who will argue that UKIP candidates should not run against ‘avowed eurosceptics’ in the 2015 election. The event is expected to be attended by Tory members of the Better Off Out group. There is growing speculation UKIP might agree not to run candidates against such MPs at the next election.
Last night, arch-Eurosceptic Tory MP Peter Bone suggested an ‘understanding’ where UKIP did not field candidates against like-minded Tories and in return, Tories gave Ukip a free run in Liberal Democrat-held seats. He added: ‘If we end up replacing Lib Dems with Ukip MPs, then hallelujah!’
But Tory colleague Conor Burns dismissed talk of any pact, saying UKIP was too ‘disparate’ to work with. A UKIP spokesman ruled out a ‘formal deal’, but said local branches had ‘independence’ over the issue.
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