Tory rivals clash over opposition role
The Conservative leadership candidates will attend another hustings in Scotland later today as they enter the last fortnight of the race to succeed Michael Howard.
David Cameron and David Davis have stepped up the rhetoric ahead of the close of ballots on December 5th, and yesterday clashed over the support they should give to Labour’s policies.
Mr Cameron, the shadow education secretary, has expressed his support for a number of Tony Blair’s reforms, including plans to give schools more freedoms, which are causing serious rifts within the Labour party.
During a televised debate on ITV yesterday, Mr Davis accused his opponent of propping up the government, only for Mr Cameron to retort that his rival was being “opportunistic” in his opposition.
“We’ve got to be very careful about being too supportive to a government in which the prime minister behaves like some sort of slick used-car salesman – gets his old banger, gives it a re-spray, and then looks surprised in six months when the rust shows through,” Mr Davis said.
“We don’t want to be an accomplice in that confidence trick on the British public.”
However, Mr Cameron insisted he was merely being “consistent”, repeating his argument that “effective opposition doesn’t mean just opposing the government for the sake of it”.
“I want to see a Conservative party that is based on principle, and if the government does something – [such as] give schools more autonomy – that we agree with, you’ll see me saying, ‘yes, we’ll back that’,” he said.
“That’s the sort of constructive criticism I want to see in this country, rather than opportunistic opposition which I think just turns people not just off the Conservative party, but off politics more generally.”
Mr Davis countered that, unlike Labour – and, he implied, Mr Cameron – he would provide “politics of delivery for ordinary people”.
“I think the public at large are sick and tired of media manipulation, public relations-driven politics and so on. I want to see an end to that – that means the politics of principle,” the shadow home secretary said.
The Davis camp has taken pains to portray their man as the candidate with real policies, rather than simply empty rhetoric, and yesterday he insisted he would tackle issues such as tax, health and education “head on”.
“[It] is very important, that determination to deal with any controversy over the next four years so when the public chose in four years’ time they actually chose on the basis of knowledge of what we stand for and how much we stand for,” he said.
However, the shadow education secretary insisted he had provided “clear direction” for the party, and preferred not to come up with detailed policies, such as Mr Davis’ pledge to cut the average family’s tax bill by more than £1,000 a year.
“So there’s a difference in approach. I’ve set a clear direction – let’s share the proceeds of growth between tax reduction and public spending, and I haven’t been as specific as David because I don’t think it’s right to do so,” Mr Cameron said.
