Battle lines are drawn as conference season ends

Conservative leader David Cameron promised to “put Britain back on her feet” in his speech at the party's conference last week.

The speech concluded a four-day party conference in Manchester.

“Don't get me wrong, I have no illusions. If we win this election, it is going to be tough. There will have to be cutbacks in public spending, and that will be painful” he told conference delegates.

On Europe - expected by many to be the most contentious issue at the conference - Cameron reiterated his support for a referendum to “return to democratic and accountable politics the powers the EU shouldn't have.”

Earlier in the week, divisions within the party over a proposed retrospective referendum on the Lisbon treaty had threatened to overshadow conference proceedings.

Leading 'Eurosceptic' figures in the party, including London mayor Boris Johnson, strongly support a public referendum on the new EU treaty, even if it has already come into force before the election.

Instead Cameron has advocated a wait-and-see policy, promising a referendum if the treaty has not yet been ratified at the time of the election while maintaining a commitment to fight to repatriate certain powers from the European to the national level.

The Conservative's were the last of the three major parties to hold their conference, following Labour's the previous week.

In a detailed speech lasting almost a full hour Gordon Brown declared his intention to drop some unpopular and expensive policies, such as ID cards for British citizens, as well as committing to a referendum on replacing the first past the post voting system for elections to the Westminster parliament.

The Prime Minister used his speech to defend his record and to criticise the Conservative Party’s response to the economic crisis, telling conference delegates: “I knew that unless I acted decisively and immediately, the recession could descend into a great depression with millions of people’s jobs and homes and savings at risk… times of great challenge mean choices of great consequence.

"Only one party with pretensions to government made the wrong choice: the Conservative party of Britain.

“They made the wrong choice on Northern Rock, the wrong choice on jobs and spending, the wrong choice on mortgage support, the wrong choice on working with Europe. The only thing about their policy that is consistent is that they are consistently wrong.”

The Labour party’s re-election bid suffered a blow as the following day The Sun newspaper announced that it would be swapping allegiances and supporting the Conservative Party.

Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman responded the following day, telling the conference that the party “won’t be bullied” by The Sun, and attacked the paper’s sexist portrayal of women. Gordon Brown dismissed the news, saying “it is people that decide elections” rather than newspapers.