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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Nick Clegg is making one of the most important speeches of his career this afternoon, he has to persuade Lib Dem loyalists that while they’re a party for government they are still a party of principles, can he do it? I’m joined now from the Lib Dem Spring Conference in Brighton by the Schools Minister David Laws, a very good morning to you Mr Laws. Let’s pre-echo the speech, it’s not too long away, can Mr Clegg look the party faithful in the eye and say after all the scars and compromises of government, we still are a party of principle?

DAVID LAWS: Yes, I mean the party here is in a very confidence mood down here in Brighton after a fantastic by-election victory in Eastleigh, in very difficult circumstances, against the odds and I think that’s given people in our party real confidence that we can be in government at a very difficult time, taking some tough decisions but also delivering some of the policies in our manifesto and we can also win confidence from people in places such as Eastleigh where we have been serving the local population at a local and national level for many years, so the party is in very good form here at this conference.

DM: But it is that issue isn’t it, as I said, of the scars and compromises of government, let’s not mention tuition fees but supporting VAT rises, a lot that Labour is criticising you for and of course these coming benefit cuts.

DL: Yes, there are a huge number of things that we’re having to support as Liberal Democrats in government because of the state of the public finances that we inherited from the last government, that’s no surprise. When we went into coalition in 2010 we knew that we were going to have to support some things that we don’t like including having to cap the rate of increase in benefits which you’ve been discussing this morning but we have to take some of those decisions to try to get the public finances back under control and we’re also doing very, very positive important thing that we stood for in our manifesto such as increasing the income tax allowance, taking millions of people out of the income tax net, which is giving real help to some of the poorest people in the country and people on middle incomes and that’s something that we’re going to be seeing this April when we’ve got the biggest ever increase in the personal tax allowance in this country courtesy of the Liberal Democrat presence in government.

DM: But the issue, Mr Laws, of the very poorest in society, those suffering from those welfare cuts and you know what the Reverend Justin Welby has said today along with 43 other Bishops, is that a civilized society has a duty to support those amongst us who are vulnerable and in need and you as part of the government are cutting their income.

DL: No, bear in mind that everybody in society at the moment is going through a difficult time. Yes, we’ve capped some of the benefits at 1%, we’ve also had a public sector pay freeze, we’ve also had a 1% cap in the future on public sector pay so we have had to take difficult decisions, not just for some of those on low incomes but for everybody in society and actually we’ve tried to help some of those on lower incomes by for example raising the tax free personal allowance and also exempting some of the lowest paid public sector workers from the effects of the pay freeze. So yes, these things are tough but we are actually trying to focus a lot of support on those people on low incomes in these challenging times.

DM: Okay, what about another treasured policy of the Liberal Democrats, you don’t seem to be able to get it past your Conservative colleagues in the coalition, but the issue of the Mansion Tax. A vote is coming up, a Labour vote and Ed Balls was sitting beside me a few minutes ago saying will the Liberal Democrats support their own policy when we vote on it?

DL: Well I haven’t seen the exact wording of the motion yet but what I’d say is this, we are in coalition with another party, we bring together our policies on tax and spending matters in partnership with that other party. If we flounced off every time an opposition party for opportunistic reasons put down motions in the House of Commons that either backed the Tory position or the Lib Dem position we’d end up in a complete shambles so we have to agree policy for each budget with our coalition partners. Sometimes we get all the things that we want, sometimes we don’t but that is the right way to make policy in a coalition government.

DM: But isn’t there a line in the sand somewhere? Opportunistic or not from Labour’s position, this is a treasured policy, as I said this is in your manifesto.

DL: Yes, there are lots of things in our manifesto and there are lots of things in the Conservative manifesto and in a coalition both parties have to have self-discipline to agree amongst themselves a common programme. You can’t pick and choose, you can’t have the Conservative party in parliament flouncing off and voting through things that we haven’t agreed and it is the same with our own policies, we have to agree these things in an adult way in coalition. That’s why we are able to deliver big increases on the personal tax allowance rather than the Tory priority of inheritance tax cuts for the very rich. Sometimes there may be things that we wish to see that Opposition parties may wish to table but I am afraid there are disciplines which come with being in coalition.

DM: So you are saying you won’t vote for it?

DL: Well, let’s see the wording on it and let’s look at these things but we’re not going to be encouraged to act in an irresponsible way in coalition in order to have the good faith of our coalition partners, to deliver some of the things we are passionate about. We have to deal in a responsible way in coalition and not simply flounce off voting for every passing motion even if it is not agreed by the coalition government itself.

DM: But you do feel free, don’t you, to openly criticise your coalition colleagues. Listen to Vince Cable, I’m sure you listened to him yesterday talking about the ideological Jihadists with the Conservative party on the economy, that they are almost a Tea Party tendency. Did you agree with him or did he go too far?

DL: Well look, we are not the same as the Conservative party and one of the things that Nick is going to be saying in his speech today is that people in our party, some people always worried that being in coalition watered down our identity. What he is saying actually is when you stand next to somebody with a different ideology and a different set of policies, the differences between you over time become more evident and not less, so of course Liberal Democrat minister where they don’t like things that have been done or where they have disagreements with fundamental Conservative policies, will draw attention to those things but it is still possible to work sensibly in coalition in the interests of the country and that’s exactly what we’re going to do as we draw up the plans for the budget that will be held in ten days’ time.

DM: Specifically on what Mr Cable was saying, he is calling for more investment, would we be wrong to interpret it as the beginning of a detachment from the core economic policies here, the core strategy?

DL: Look, I think there are two things that Vince is drawing attention to. One is he is departmental minister, head of the Business Department, he is doing what many other Conservative colleagues at this time are doing and making a strong bid for a good settlement in the next spending review and good luck to him. He is also emphasising, which every person in the coalition believes in, the importance of infrastructure investment and the government will continue to do more to support infrastructure investment but Vince also agrees that we need to do that in the context of bringing down the hideous levels of borrowing that we inherited from the last government but simply can’t go on without piling a massive burden of debt on the next generation and we’re not going to do that and we’re not going to give up on the deficit reduction strategy.

DM: It is, Mr Laws, very strong language, ideological Jihadists – how can you stay in government with people described like that by a Cabinet Minister? Do you see this coalition still lasting the full five years?

DL: I’m sure that this coalition will last the full five years because the public did not come up with a verdict in the last general election which gave one party a majority so we have a responsibility to sort out our economic circumstances, get debt and borrowing under control, get growth back into the economy and I think the public would be very angry with either the Conservative party or the Liberal Democrats if we just gave up on this before the end of this parliament. People want us to stay there and finish the job, they know these are two parties with their own views and own ideologies and own philosophies but they expect us to work in the public interest and we’ve got to show that we’ve got the determination and stamina to do that which is going to be one of the themes in Nick’s speech today.

DM: But it’s just the point though, isn’t it, that a lot of what Mr Cable and others within the Liberal Democrats have been saying, sound quite a lot like some of the stuff that Labour, the two Ed’s, are saying. Perhaps the public might thank you at this point in the economic cycle for leaving this government, leaving this coalition, having a general election and doing business with them.

DL: No, firstly the coalition will continue and secondly, I wouldn’t compare in any way the sort of things that Vince Cable has been saying with the Labour party. The Labour party continue to demonstrate the complete inability to have any discipline over public expenditure. Every single tough decision the coalition takes they say they will oppose but that they won’t necessarily reinstate the spending later on. It is just completely incredible and that’s why in the Eastleigh by-election a couple of weeks ago, the Labour party’s vote barely moved at a time when you would expect, if there was any enthusiasm for them returning as the next government, that they would be absolutely cleaning up on the votes so I think that the Labour party has not restored any sense of credibility on economic policy and it is left to the two coalition parties to manage the economy out of the mess that it was left in at the end of the last Labour government.

DM: Mr Laws, thank you very much indeed for appearing on the Murnaghan show. David Laws there, thank you very much.