Author: By Andrew Woodcock, Press Association

The package of policies to beat what the Conservative leader called “a
jobs crisis” included a new promise to waive employer national
insurance on the first 10 employees of any new business created within the
first two years of a Tory government, which shadow chancellor George Osborne
said could create 60,000 jobs.

Other announcements included a chain of technical schools in England’s biggest
cities, 10,000 extra university places and a check-up on every Incapacity
Benefit claimant to see whether they are really unfit to work.

The announcements came against a continued backdrop of internal disagreement
over Europe, with London Mayor Boris Johnson and right-wing MP Andrew
Rosindell both suggesting that there could be a referendum even if the EU’s
Lisbon Treaty is ratified by all 27 member states by the time a Conservative
government comes to power.

Mr Cameron has promised a referendum only if one or more EU state has not
ratified. Foreign Secretary David Miliband today put pressure on him to
spell out what he means when he said that he will not “let matters rest”
if ratification is complete.

The Tory leader did not address the European issue in a brief speech to the
party conference in Manchester to launch his Get Britain Working package.

Instead, he sought to seize control of issues traditionally seen as Labour’s
home territory, telling activists the Conservatives must be “not just
the party of the NHS, not just the party of the environment but the party of
jobs and enterprise here in Britain in 2009″.

Mr Cameron warned his party against complacency and said they needed a
convincing win to be able to make the hard choices the country required.

“Some people said to me: just come to Manchester, keep your head down and
let Labour lose the next election.

“My friends, let this be the week when we don’t just let Labour lose the
election but we show we deserve to go out and win it.

“Not just because we cannot afford to be complacent; not just because, as
you have been told, to win the next election we have to win more seats at
one election than we have done at any time in the last 70 years.

“No, but because of this: because the problems this country faces are so
severe, the crisis of our public finances so deep, that we need a strong and
positive mandate for the changes we know our country needs and we know
people are crying out for.

“This is not some week of celebration, not some week of pointing out
Labour’s failures.

“It is the week we should square up and look at the British people in the
eyes and say: we know how deep the problems are; we know how difficult some
of the solutions will be; but we are ready, together with you, to take this
country through some tough times but to better days ahead.”

He told activists: “With that, let us go to work.

Mr Osborne said that waiving the employers’ NI contribution, worth 12.8 per
cent of an employee’s salary, would cost around £250m a year. The shadow
chancellor said he will explain how he would fund the tax break in his
keynote speech to the Manchester conference tomorrow.

“This is just another example of the Conservatives being the party of jobs at
a time when Labour are the party of mass unemployment,” he said.

Aides said that the exemption would apply to the first 10 employees hired by a
business during its first year, up to the upper earning limit of £844 a week
per employee, or about £44,000 a year. For a new small business with 10
employees on an average salary of £25,000, Mr Osborne calculates this could
save up to £25,000 a year at current tax rates.

The proposal was welcomed by the Federation of Small Businesses, which said:
“Since 2002, small firms have created over 80% of all new jobs. This
proposal will help to create and grow more small businesses that will serve
as a catalyst for economic recovery.

“It is reassuring to see that the Conservatives recognise the link between
lower payroll taxes and job creation. The FSB will now campaign to ensure
that this logic is extended to existing small businesses, over 40% of which
would take on staff if payroll taxes were lower.”

But Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper dismissed the Conservative
welfare-to-work proposals: “This is a carefully packaged con. The Tories
still want to make cuts in a recession that would destroy jobs and,
according to respected economists, would actually push unemployment up to
five million.

“They are simply rehashing Labour policies without the investment needed to
make them work. The Tories don’t understand that you can’t get people from
welfare into work if you destroy the jobs for them to go to.”

Mr Cameron said Gordon Brown’s Government had left 2.5 million people
unemployed, 2.6 million on incapacity benefit and one in five of young
people workless.

He told delegates: “There has never been a time when it was more necessary to
take a bunch of tired, discredited, disunited, clapped-out ministers and
sweep them away with a new broom.”

The Tory leader said that after 12 years of conferences at which policies were
debated without ever being put into action, “this time we have a real chance
of making a difference”.

“Twelve years gone, perhaps just seven months to go, 60 million hopes resting
on our shoulders,” said Mr Cameron.

“We must not let Britain down.”

At its conference Brighton last week, instead of addressing the nation, Labour
spoke to itself and attacked the Tories as too young and inexperienced for
the country to risk turning to during an economic crisis, said Mr Cameron.

“What planet are they living on?” he asked. “If the charge is youth and
enthusiasm and energy, I plead guilty.”

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