Labour Party Conference: Ed Balls speech

Labour Party Conference: Ed Balls speech; Ed Balls speech SOT - And yet having spent the last four months travelling around the UK as a candidate for the leadership of our party, I know that - despite the General Election result - the Labour Party, Co-operative Party and trade union members I have met are not down and despondent but energised and united and determined to do what it takes to see Labour back in government. And let me tell you one reason why our membership is so determined and our membership is surging. Two words: Nick Clegg. Don't forget last year at this Conference, when The Sun newspaper came out for David Cameron, he was on track for an 80 seat majority. But David Cameron failed to convince the country his party had changed and that he could be trusted. It was not The Sun what won it for the Tories this time. It was not the Sun that put them into power. It was Nick Clegg: the man whose own election leaflets said 'Vote Liberal Democrat or you'll get a Tory government', the man who said 'stop the Tory VAT bombshell,' who said spending cuts now would be 'reckless' and put jobs and the recovery at risk. It was Nick Clegg who has given us: a Tory Prime Minister, a Tory Chancellor, a massive and unfair hike in VAT and as George Osborne's own budget adviser has told us, a budget that hits the poorest hardest and I say to Liberal Democrats MPs, it is one thing to want to be in power. It is quite another thing to sacrifice your principles and your Manifesto for power. But to do so on the backs of the young and the poor and the pensioner and the vulnerable is a disgrace. We're shocked when we see Liberal Democrats propping up this Coalition government and if we're shocked, just think how shocked are all the people who voted Liberal Democrat in the election. But there is a more important reason why our party is determined. Because we know this is a Conservative government, it's the Conservatives we've got to beat to win the next election. Nick Clegg may l...