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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Nick Clegg's speech to the Lib Dem spring conference: Politics Live blog

Nick Clegg and his wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez ahead of Clegg's speech to the Lib Dem spring conference in Liverpool today.
Nick Clegg and his wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez ahead of Clegg’s speech to the Lib Dem spring conference in Liverpool today. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Lunchtime summary

This will be remembered as the Rosetta speech. Nick Clegg did not explicitly compare his party to the tiny spacecraft that managed to land on a moving comet 500m kilometres away, but, towards the end of his speech, when he talked about the challenge facing the Lib Dems in 2010, and the question “would we, this brave little party with no experience of national government, have what it takes?”, it was hard not to see that he was making a connection. It was a remarkable metaphor. On the up side, the Rosetta story is about the triumph of hope and perseverance. But on the down side, Rosetta isn’t coming back.

Sometimes political party conferences are remarkable for what does not happen at them. The Lib Dems still have dire poll ratings (7 points in all three of today’s polls, less than a third of where they were in 2010). Yet, outwardly, there were no recriminations at the conference, and no sign of panic, and even in private the mood seemed to be sober, rather than utterly despondent. Clegg’s job in his speech seemed to be to assure them all that the last five years had been worth it and, judging by the reaction in the hall, he pulled it off. Mostly the speech was a recitation of Lib Dem coalition “greatest hits”, but it did also contain an argument about political change.

Here are the key points.

  • Clegg has told the Lib Dems that they have “changed the political landscape forever”. In an upbeat speech which could be his last to a party conference (many people in the party expect Clegg to resign as party leader after the election, although a better-than-expected result could see him stay on until the autumn), Clegg said that the Lib Dems had broken the two-party system and shown that coalition government could work.

We changed the political landscape forever.

Five years ago we were told a hung parliament would be a disaster for Britain.

We were told that without a clear majority for one of the old, establishment parties, Britain would collapse into chaos.

We proved them wrong.

We broke the stranglehold of the two old parties and proved that coalition can be strong, stable and successful.

We proved that the give and take of different parties working together can be a very British way of getting things done.

But Clegg has not won this argument for good. In another part of the speech Clegg complained that, for Labour and the Tories, “compromise is treated like a dirty word” and his aides said Ed Balls’s interview this morning (see 10.36am), where Balls said coalition politics were “corrosive”, illustrated this point. Perhaps it does, but it also shows that Clegg has failed to persuade Labour to warm to the idea of coalition government. The Tories don’t seem too keen either.

  • The Conservative party’s attack on Labour for refusing to rule out a post-election pact with the SNP has been partially undermined by George Osborne’s refusal to rule out a pact with Ukip. (See 10.36am.)
  • Lord Ashdown, the former Lib Dem leader, has delivered a public rebuke to Tim Farron, telling him to curb his leadership ambitions. (See 11.47am.)

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

Here’s Labour on Nick Clegg’s speech.

The conference is now well and truly over.

Clegg's speech - Twitter reaction

Here is some Twitter reaction to the speech.

From Channel 4 News’s Michael Crick

From the Guardian’s political editor, Patrick Wintour

From Sky’s deputy political editor, Joey Jones

From Channel 4 News’s Tim Bouverie

From Bloomberg’s Rob Hutton

Updated

Clegg is now on his peroration.

The story of the next five years must be one of hope.

If you are thinking of voting Conservative but are worried that they won’t be fair – don’t do it.

If you are thinking of voting Labour but are worried they will ruin the economy – don’t do it.

If you think a vote for UKIP, or the Greens, or the SNP is harmless – it isn’t.

If you want a stable government that won’t lurch to the extremes of left or right, you have to vote for it.

If you want a stronger economy and a fairer society, you have to vote for it.

If you want a government that will create opportunities for everyone, vote Liberal Democrat.

This is a fight for our future, for the decent values of our country – we can and we must win.

And that’s it.

Clegg is getting a fairly lengthy standing ovation.

I will post a summary soon

Clegg says Lib Dems will do 'much better than anyone thinks' in May

Clegg says the Lib Dems will “defy the odds and win again this May”.

(He does not say what they will win.)

He goes on:

I have a message for all those who are writing us off once again: the Liberal Democrats are here to stay.

I’ve heard the predictions. I’ve seen the polls. But let me tell you this: we will do so much better than anyone thinks.

In those seats where we are out in force, making our case loudly and proudly, we are the ones making the weather.

I’ve seen it for myself in Liberal Democrat seats across the country.

We are showing that with hard work, strong local campaign teams and a record of delivering for people in national and local government, we can and will win.

Clegg says Lib Dems have 'change the political landscape forever'

Clegg says the Lib Dems have “changed the political landscape forever”.

Five years ago we were told a hung parliament would be a disaster for Britain.

We were told that without a clear majority for one of the old, establishment parties, Britain would collapse into chaos.

We proved them wrong.

We broke the stranglehold of the two old parties and proved that coalition can be strong, stable and successful.

We proved that the give and take of different parties working together can be a very British way of getting things done.

We challenged the power of the vested interests on the left and right of the British establishment and we felt their wrath in return.

And we are still standing.

Clegg says he wants to go 'much further' towards tax cuts in the budget

Clegg says he wants to go “much further” in the budget next week in terms of cutting taxes for ordinary people.

Clegg says Lib Dems now have a record of achievement

Clegg says only the Lib Dems would cut less than the Tories, and borrow less than Labour.

And now they have a record of achievement, he says.

The five priorities on the front page of our manifesto: ending austerity, cutting taxes, investing in education and health and protecting our environment …

… we can say we will do these things because, unlike ever before, we have a record of action in government to back us up.

A record achieved not in a time of plenty where there is cash to throw around, but a record achieved in the toughest of circumstances.

Clegg says cutting is in the Tory DNA

Clegg says the Tories just offer further cuts.

Gone are the days of compassionate Conservatism. Now they promise to cut and cut and cut, not because they have to but because they want to.

In the firing line are teachers and social workers, soldiers and police officers.

And education.

We have spent five years stopping the Conservatives from doing immense damage to the life chances of our children …

… whether it’s trying to cut the schools budget in real terms...

… or bringing back the old-fashioned two-tier education system.

Some Tories even wanted to let free schools be run for profit.

The Conservatives are a threat to education.

They will take billions of pounds away from existing schools in order to create 500 more free schools, regardless of whether or not they are actually needed at all.

And they will cut, drastically, the money that goes to nurseries, sixth forms and colleges.

Why? Because it’s what they do.

Cows moo. Dogs bark. And Tories cut. It’s in their DNA.

Clegg says Labour would borrow £70bn more than the Lib Dems

Clegg says the most interesting thing Labour has done in the election campaign so far is buy a pink van.

Yesterday, Ed Miliband unveiled his new pledge card.

That card costs £70bn. That’s how much more than us Labour will borrow in the next five years.

£70bn – more than we spend on schools and the police put together.

And they would leave us paying an extra £4bn just on the interest on our debt.

It’s not a pledge card, it’s a credit card. And you, me and every other British taxpayer will be paying the bill for years to come.

Clegg rules out joining coalition with Ukip or the SNP

Clegg turns to coalition talk.

And this morning we hear that UKIP are offering a pact with the Tories, just as the SNP has offered to prop up the Labour Party – in the one case to take the UK out of Europe; in the other to take Scotland out of the United Kingdom.

On the Marr show George Osborne refused to rule out a pact with Ukip, and Labour refused to rule out a pact with the SNP, he says.

He confirms that the Lib Dems would not enter a deal with Ukip or the SNP.

So let me be clear: just like we would not put Ukip in charge of Europe, we are not going to put the SNP in charge of Britain – a country they want to rip apart.

It’s just not going to happen.

(That means the party would not join a coalition which included either of those two parties, party sources said.)

If others won’t stand up to the growing mood of divisive populism, we will.

We will face down the nationalists and isolationists who seek to divide our society.

We will stand up for tolerance, decency and fairness.

I won’t let the populists decide what Britain becomes.

I won’t let the Conservatives or Labour decide what Britain becomes.

Updated

Clegg says Lib Dems must keep Britain 'open-hearted and optimistic'

Clegg says “our future as an optimistic, open-hearted and outward-looking country is not guaranteed.”

If we want to remain an open, confident, outward-looking society, it will only happen if political parties who believe in compassion and tolerance step up to the plate.

Instead, the opposite is happening.

Labour and the Conservatives are deserting the centre ground.

Compromise is treated like a dirty word.

Everywhere you look there is blame and division.

It’s in the angry nationalism of UKIP, setting citizen against citizen as they pander to fear.

It’s in Theresa May’s Go Home vans.

In the glint in George Osborne’s eye as he announces that the working age poor will bear the brunt of the cuts.

It’s in the red-faced bluster of the Tory right wingers who are determined to scrap the Human Rights Act and drag us out of Europe.

Clegg says budget will contain 'big and bold' measures on child mental health

Clegg turns to mental health. This has been Clegg’s main conference announcement, although details were released yesterday.

The stigma around mental health is real and devastating, he says.

It’s not been easy, we have had to fight for resources and sometimes it has felt like for every two steps forward we have taken, individual local decisions have taken us a step back.

But we have made real progress.

Equality for mental health treatment enshrined in law; the first ever waiting times standards; and hundreds of millions of pounds for talking therapies and services for young people with eating disorders.

And in next week’s Budget we will do something big and bold to address possibly the most heart-wrenching tragedy of all of this.

Three children in every classroom have a mental health condition, he says. That is why the government will commit another £1.25bn for children’s mental health services over the next five years.

Clegg also praises Norman Lamb for the “dignity and courage” he has shown in relation to the situation with his son. (See 11.38am.)

Clegg calls for an end to child illiteracy

How do we get there? First, we have to make it clear there is light at the end of the tunnel, he says.

We can end austerity in three years’ time, he says.

In the future we can continue to invest in infrastructure, and to continue cutting taxes, he says.

He says one of his proudest moments in government came last year when primary school results were published.

They showed children from the poorest backgrounds getting their best ever results and the gap between them and their better off classmates narrowing.

This was in large part down to two decisions Liberal Democrats took in Government.

The first was to protect the schools budget in real terms, despite strong resistance from the Conservatives.

The second was to create the Pupil Premium, a policy straight from the front page of our manifesto that targets money – more than £1,000 per pupil every year – directly to the poorest children in our schools.

But it is time to go further, he says.

I want every child to leave primary school to be confident at reading – ending child illiteracy for good.

Clegg's vision of Britain in 2020

Clegg describes the Britain he would like to see in 2020.

How about a Britain where a child can dream of what they want their life to be, and not be held back from getting there by the circumstances of their birth or the colour of their skin?

Where a young girl who saw Professor Grady’s tears of joy on television can know that with talent and hard work she too can achieve great things.

How about a Britain where a young couple don’t have to dream of owning their own home, but can actually afford to do it?

Or where they can plan for their family, knowing that the choice of who returns to work and who stays at home with their baby is theirs and theirs alone?

'We are a small island, but we are a big, big country'

Clegg says he wants “us” to think big too.

(It is not clear whether “us” is the party, or the country.)

I want us to take just a little bit of the spirit of that audacious project and start to think big.

I want us to look to the future with renewed optimism.

Britain is an open-hearted, open-minded, optimistic country.

Full of decent, hard-working, generous people ...

We are a small island but we are a big, big country.

Clegg says he spoke to Professor Monica Grady, from the Rosetta project (the comet mission) on Friday and was delighted to find she is a card-carrying Liberal Democrat.

Clegg says he is inspired by comet mission

Nick Clegg starts by saying there was lots of grim news around last November.

But then a different story emerged.

A small group of scientists and engineers had spent years tracking a comet the size of a city as it hurtled through space from the edge of the solar system.

And on that day in November, as that piece of rock was half a billion kilometres away, travelling 40 times faster than a bullet through the vacuum of space, they, we, humanity, landed an object the size of a washing machine on its surface ...

What an audacious, optimistic thing to have even dreamt of attempting.

What an inspiring moment for thousands of young girls and boys to witness.

What a beautiful, hopeful thing it said about us.

(At a briefing earlier, party sources were rejecting obvious questions from journalists about whether Clegg was suggesting that the Lib Dems winning in May would be about as hard as landing an object the size of a washing machine on a comet.)

Ian Wrigglesworth has finished his fundraising appeal. The yellow despatch box raised £1,500 in an auction. Nick Clegg is now taking the stage.

The Lib Dems released a text of Nick Clegg’s speech under a 12pm embargo, and the Press Association has just released its first take on what he is saying. Here it is.

The liberal values of modern Britain would be under threat if either the Tories or Labour attempted to govern with the support of a “rag tag mob” of MPs from Ukip or the SNP, Nick Clegg warned.

The Liberal Democrat leader, who insisted his party was “here to stay” despite opinion polls indicating he will lose dozens of MPs on May 7, said the election was a fight for the “decent values of our country”.

Making his pitch for the party to retain a share of power after the election, Clegg insisted only the Lib Dems would “govern for the whole country”.

Clegg ruled out being part of a formal coalition deal involving either the SNP or Ukip, although aides would not reject the idea of those parties being involved in a looser confidence and supply arrangement.

In his last major speech to the party before the general election, Clegg said the single-figure opinion poll ratings did not reflect the picture in battleground seats where the Lib Dems were able to mount an effective campaign.

He also launched a fresh attack on his Conservative coalition colleagues, saying “cows moo, dogs bark and Tories cut - it’s in their DNA”.

Accusing them of an “ideological lurch to the right”, he said: “They have gone from being the self-proclaimed heirs to Blair to Nigel Farage in white tie.”

Labour’s plans would cost 70 billion, he said as he mocked Ed Miliband’s “pledge card”.

He said: “It’s not a pledge card, it’s a credit card. And you, me and every other British taxpayer will be paying the bill for years to come.”

Clegg told the party’s spring conference in Liverpool: “If we want to remain an open, confident, outward-looking society, it will only happen if political parties who believe in compassion and tolerance step up to the plate.

“Instead, the opposite is happening. Labour and the Conservatives are deserting the centre ground.

“Compromise is treated like a dirty word. Everywhere you look there is blame and division.”

He condemned the “angry nationalism” of Ukip, the “red-faced bluster” of the Tory right and the “scaremongering” of Labour.

Clegg singled out for criticism Cabinet colleagues Theresa May over her “go home vans” immigration campaign and George Osborne, claiming the Chancellor had a “glint” in his eye as he “announces that the working age poor will bear the brunt of the cuts”.

Ian Wrigglesworth is now auctioning off the yellow despatch box that Danny Alexander used as a prop in his speech yesterday.

Alexander joked about having it ready for his Lib Dem budget after the election, but perhaps the party has decided it won’t be needing it.

Nick Clegg's speech

Nick Clegg will be giving his speech shortly.

Ian Wrigglesworth, the party treasurer, is now making a fundraising appeal.

Ashdown tells Farron to curb his leadership ambitions

Tim Farron’s Mail on Sunday interview (see 10.56am) may have backfired. On Radio 5 Live, Lord Ashdown, the former Lib Dem leader, delivered a withering put down, effectively telling him to curb his leadership ambitions.

I think his well-known ambitions would be better served with a little more patience and a little more judgement. Tim is a very able guy but judgement is not his strong suit.

I’ve taken the quote from PoliticsHome.

And this is from BuzzFeed’s Emily Ashton.

That was a reference to an interview Farron gave to the Financial Times a few days ago.

Norman Lamb's speech - Summary

Norman Lamb, the care minister, addressed the conference earlier. The Sunday Mirror has a story about his son being involved in an alleged blackmail plot. Most of Lamb’s speech was about mental health, but he started with a brief reference to the Sunday Mirror story.

  • Lamb said his concern to address mental health problems was partly inspired by personal experience.

Before I begin my speech I just want to say a few words about a personal matter. Something you may have read about this morning.

My family has had our own experience of mental health problems as our son was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder at the age of 15. It’s something he has made the decision to be open about.

This has been a very painful time for our family. As a parent you just want to keep your children safe, to know they are going to be ok.

But my family is not unique. Our experience has made me even more determined to bring mental health out of the shadows and fight for better care for all of the families affected by it.

  • He said the Lib Dems were committed to changing the law to give people with learning disabilities, autism and mental health conditions more rights around the care they receive. He published a green paper on this recently, and he said he hoped this would lead to the law being changed in the next parliament.
  • He said he would publish a report on Tuesday setting out plans for the future of mental health services for young people.
  • He said the Lib Dems wanted to ban under-18s with mental health problems being held in police cells.

Updated

In the conference hall Lib Dems members have passed two motions.

The first, an emergency motion on leaders’ debates, says that the debates should go ahead and that, after the election, a formal process should be set in place to ensure they happen every year.

The second, on freedom of expression, says people do have the right to offend others and that “freedom of expression and freedom of belief in a democratic and free society requires blasphemy, sacrilege and apostasy to be unfettered.”

Turning to the Lib Dems now, the Mail on Sunday has an interview with Tim Farron, the party’s foreign affairs spokesman and favourite to succeed Nick Clegg as leader, in which Farron says the party could suffer for a generation from its decision to go into coalition with the Tories. Farron said:

In 2010, many people said: ‘I am not voting for you because of the [1970s] Lib-Lab pact,’ when I was seven years old. Just think what going into coalition with the Tories will do to our brand over the next generation.

And the Observer reports a source close to Nick Clegg saying the Lib Dems could lose nearly half their seats and still remain a party of government, most probably in coalition with the Conservatives.

George Osborne and Ed Balls on the Andrew Marr show - Summary and analysis

Here is a summary of the key points from those interviews, with some analysis.

  • Ed Balls said he thought coalition politics were “corrosive”. Just a few minutes after he said that, a very senior Lib Dem figure came into the press room in Liverpool where I’m working to tell us that he thought this was hugely significant, because it indicated that Labour were planning to run a minority government if they could. This is what Balls said.

I’ve got to say I’ve always felt coalition politics is corrosive to British public trust. And you’ve sort of proven why [a reference to Andrew Marr’s questions about Labour doing a deal with the SNP].

  • George Osborne has refused to rule out a Conservative pact with Ukip after the general election, just as Ed Balls has refuse to rule out a Labour pact with the SNP. Balls was repeatedly pressed on this in his interview, and he said that the idea of a Labour/SNP pact was “nonsense”, but he would not rule it out.

Ed Miliband said it’s nonsense. It’s not part of our plans. Large parties at this stage say they we are fighting for a majority and we are. I’m not getting involved in speculation about post election deals.

It’s a Tory party who want to deflect attention from David Cameron’s cowardice on the TV debates. The only party who has done a deal with the SNP in the last ten years is the Tories in Scotland in 2011. You can ask George Osborne whether or not he’s going to do a deal with Ukip. Michael Gove and Nigel Farage are apparently good friends; they agree on leaving Europe and privatising the NHS.

Marr did indeed ask Osborne if he would rule out a pact with Ukip. Like Balls, he refused to give that assurance.

Even engaging with Nigel Farage on this is giving him credibility where he has no credibility. The truth is, a vote for Nigel Farage is a vote for the Labour party, a vote for Ed Miliband as prime minister, and it means no referendum on Europe. And people need to know that.

When it was put to him that it was hypocritical of him to challenge Labour to rule out a pact when the Conservatives wouldn’t, he claimed the situation was different.

It’s a fundamentally different situation for this reason. Nigel Farage is not going to win seats in the House of Commons. Even on his own estimation, he says he’s going to win a small handful. The SNP are likely to win dozens of seats because of the collapse of the Labour party. Ed Miliband can’t be prime minister without the support of Alex Salmond. And that creates an alliance between those who want to bankrupt the country and those who want to break up the country.

The Tories believe that repeatedly challenging Labour on this, and highlighting Ed Miliband’s refusal to rule out a Labour/SNP pact, works to their advantage. Amongst English voters, it presents Labour as a party that would give undue influence to the Scots. And, for Scots voters, it conveys the impression that they could safely vote SNP and end up with the Labour government they would prefer to the Tories.

(The challenge has another advantage too. If Labour were to cave in, and rule out any form of pact with the SNP, Miliband would find his post-election options seriously curtailed. Remember, when your political opponents challenge you to do something, it is not normally because they are trying to be helpful.)

Osborne’s performance today will make it harder for the Tories to run this line of attack with credibility - although, of course, it won’t stop them.

In the past Grant Shapps, the Conservative chairman, has ruled out a Conservative pact with Ukip. But Osborne is rather higher up the Tory chain of command than Shapps. And Osborne is refusing to rule out a pact for exactly the same reason as Labour; because the Tories might need one.

  • Osborne and Balls agreed to take part in an election Treasury debate. Balls got Osborne to shake on it. Balls said they had agreed to a one-on-one debate, but Osborne said he thought Danny Alexander should be included too.
  • Osborne said that people opposed to his plan to allow people to turn their annuities into a lump sum were “very patronising”. He believed in “trusting people”, he said.

Updated

Balls and Osborne are on the couch together now.

Q: You debated with the chancellor last time. Will you do it again?

Osborne says it would be sensible to debate Balls.

Balls says Osborne is not a coward. He and Osborne can sort this out. Are you up for it?

Osborne says he is happy to agree that.

Balls invites him to shake on it. After a little hesitation, Osborne shakes his hand.

Osborne says the should include Danny Alexander.

Not, it was one to one, you’ve just shaken on it, says Balls.

Q: Are you friends?

Osborne says he would not describe them as the best of friends, but they can be civil to each other. It is possible to separate the personal from the political, he says.

And that’s it. In another budget tradition, the Marr producer cuts away from the best political TV of the week (Osborne and Balls on the sofa together) to some music that no one is interested in.

And that’s it. I’ll post a summary shortly.

Q: Why won’t you commit to keeping defence spending at 2% of GDP?

Osborne says we are meeting the 2% target now.

The right time to make commitments for the future is when you settle spending after a spending review.

Q: You are announcing today that people with annuities can cash it in.

Osborne says there are 5m people with an annuity. For some of them that will be the right choice. But some will want the lump sum.

Q: What if people blow it on a luxury car and run out of money?

Osborne says that is a patronising attitude. People should have a choice.

Q: Nigel Farage is offering you a deal today.

Osborne says this is nonsense. Voting for Ukip makes it more likely that Ed Miliband will be prime minister. There would not be a referendum.

Q: Will you rule out a pact with Ukip?

Osborne says this is different from the SNP. The Ukip are not going to win many seats. Yet SNP could win dozens. Ed Miliband will need the SNP to govern,

Q: Can you rule out a deal with Ukip?

Osborne says engaging with Nigel Farage is giving him credibility.

Marr says this feels like a mirror of his conversation with Ed Balls.

Osborne says this is different. Labour are openly plannning a deal with the SNP.

Q: Do you despise Farage?

Osborne says he just thinks he is not a credible figure.

Osborne says he wants to improve travel links between the great northern cities, so that they are more than the sum of their parts.

They would then by a rival to London.

A big theme of the budget will be achieving a truly national recovery, he says.

Q: If you won’t accept the term “colossal”, will you accept that 60% of the cuts are yet to come.

Osborne has set out the cuts he is planning for the next two years.

Q: Where would those £12bn in welfare cuts come from?

Osborne says he would set out his plans in a comprehensive spending review later this year. People know the Tories have a track record of achieving savings.

Q: The IFS says “colossal” cuts are to come. Is that a fair word to use?

Osborne says there are more cuts to come. There will be difficult decisions.

Q: “Colossal”?

Osborne says he wants cuts to welfare and departmental spending.

Q: So there will be deep cuts. Are you still committed to your timescale for a £23bn surplus?

Osborne says the forecasts will be produced next week. He cannot talk about them in advance. But he needs to achieve savings of £30bn.

His argument is that you need to run a surplus in the good years.

Q: You are earmarking some of it for tax cuts for people earning more than £41,000.

Osborne says he has two priorities: lifting the basic allowance to £12,500, and raising the higher rate threshold to £50,000.

There are 1.8m more jobs in this country. Employment in this country has never been higher, he says.

George Osborne's interview on the Andrew Marr show

George Osborne is being interviewed now.

Q: Do you agree with Michael Gove that the Tories should be “warriors for the dispossed”?

Obsorne says he agrees the Tories should help the disadvantaged. They are doing that by promoting employment.

There will be no gimmicks or giveaways.

Q: So no tax threshold increase?

Osborne says everything in the budget will have to be paid for?

Q: So it will be fiscally neutral?

Osborne says his whole philosophy is that everything has to be paid for.

Q: So that’s a yes.

Osborne says he cannot reveal the budget today.

Q: Would you keep the 2% target for defence spending?

Balls says defence is important. Labour has said it would cut defence spending by less than the Tories.

It would also have a defence review.

At the end of the 1970s the figure was 5%. It fell under Margaret Thatcher to 2%. Labour stabilised it.

Labour kept it at 2%, he says.

Q: And you leave the door open to a deal with the SNP?

That’s total nonsense, he says.

And that’s it.

Q: Where would the cuts fall under Labour?

Balls says the party has set out a lot of ideas already, in eight zero-based spending reviews.

But you also need fair tax rises at the top, plus growth and higher wages.

Q: Are there things the state would stop doing>

Balls says Labour introduced the universal winter fuel allowance. It would take it away for wealthy pensioners.

Ed Balls' interview on the Andrew Marr show

Andrew Marr is interviewing Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, now.

Q: The SNP say you, like the Tories, are signed up to austerity economics. Why not say the deficit does not matter?

Balls says he does not accept that. Some parties say the deficit does not matter. He does not agree.

But George Osborne wants to go beyond balancing the books. He wants a £23bn surplus, so he can cut the size of the state to 1930s level.

Q: If the SNP’s austerity plans are irresponsible, why not say you can’t do a deal with them?

Balls says Labour has no plans or need to do a deal with the SNP.

Q: So why not rule it out?

Balls says Ed Miliband has said it is nonsense. Labour are fighting for a majority.

Q: If you don’t rule out a deal, the Tories can keep portraying you as in the SNP’s pocket.

Balls says this is not damaging; it is utter nonsense. The only party to have done a deal with the SNP in the last 10 years is the Conservative party.

Q: So why don’t you rule it out?

Balls says Labour are fighting for a majority. Will you ask George Osborne to rule out a pact with Ukip?

Yes, says Marr.

Balls says large parties do not get involved in this kind of speculation.

He says he has always thought that coalition politics is corrosive.

  • Coalition politics are “corrosive”, Balls says.

Updated

Today's Guardian seat projection - Tories 281, Labour 265

And here’s today’s Guardian seat projection.

Conservatives: 281

Labour: 265

SNP: 53

Lib Dems: 25

Ukip: 4

Greens: 1

Today's polls - Two show Labour 2 points ahead, and one has Labour and Tories tied

There are three polls around this morning.

YouGov has Labour and the Conservatives tied.

ComRes has Labour two points ahead.

And Opinium also has Labour two points ahead.

Here are some more budget-related articles from the papers.

George Osborne is to give the green light to High Speed 3 (HS3), a high-speed rail link between Leeds and Manchester in this week’s Budget as he seeks to resuscitate the North’s economy.

The plan, mooted by the Chancellor last year, is opposed by the same campaigners who believe that the £42.6bn HS2 railway from London to the North is a waste of money and will ruin the countryside. The Department for Transport is to release a business case endorsing the construction of HS3, which will reduce journey times between Leeds and Manchester from 48 minutes to around half an hour.

I said in 2010 we are all in it together - and I meant it. So this week my budget will set out measures to make sure we keep delivering a truly national recovery. We mustn’t go back to the bad old days of just relying on the City of London for growth.

In this budget we will take further steps to invest in and grow all parts and industries of the UK.

So, my budget will not be a Budget of pre-election gimmicks or giveaways. It will be a budget for the long term.

When he delivers this week’s budget the chancellor won’t be able to run away from five years of failure and broken promises.

Working people are worse off. Independent experts at the Institute for Fiscal Studies say that tax and benefit changes since 2010 have cost families an average of 1,127 a year.

And new figures show some families have been hit even harder: a one earner couple with children are an average of 1,949 a year worse off.

No last minute pre-election tax cut can make up for that. As everyone knows, this Tory chancellor gives with one hand but takes away much more with the other hand.

The Observer and other papers are reported that George Osborne will use the budget to announce that pensioners with annuities will be able to convert them into cash lump sums without paying punitive tax rates. Here’s the Observer’s story, and here’s how it starts.

George Osborne will unveil plans this week to give up to five million current pensioners the right to swap their regular retirement incomes for cash lump sums when he unveils his final budget before the general election.

In a highly populist move designed to woo older voters into the arms of the Tories, the chancellor will say on Wednesday that a Conservative government would end restrictions on the sale of annuities, allowing people to cash them in without incurring the current punitive tax penalties.

The move – while certain to be popular with existing pensioners, who will not benefit from radical pension reforms already announced – will be controversial, with critics arguing that older people could be tempted to make rash decisions and leave themselves short of regular income late in life.

Richard Murphy, the tax campaigner, is highly critical.

It’s the final day of the Lib Dem spring conference and I’m still in Liverpool, where Nick Clegg will be closing the conference with his keynote speech just before lunchtime.

But it’s also the Sunday before the budget, and that means we’ve got George Osborne and Ed Balls both doing their pre-budget interviews on the Andrew Marr show - an event that has become almost as integral a part of the budget ritual as the red box photocall outside Number 11 on the day. I’ll be focusing on that first, before switching to the Lib Dems a bit later.

Here’s the agenda for the day.

9am: The Andrew Marr show starts. Ed Balls and George Osborne will be interviewed during the hour-long programme.

9am: The Lib Dem conference opens with an emergency debate on the TV debates.

9.45am: Debate on a motion on free expression and the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

10.30am: Norman Lamb, the care minister, gives a speech.

10.50am: Debate on education funding.

11.45am: Nick Clegg gives his speech.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow

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