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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: I’m joined by three of the Conservative Party’s MPs Mark Field is the member for the Cities of London and Westminster here in the studio and about to set off for Manchester I know and already there are your colleagues James Cleverly and Andrea Jenkyns and we’ll be talking to those pair in a couple of minutes.  They are two of the new intake aren’t they, you’ve been there a little bit longer.  

MARK FIELD: I’m afraid so, an old hand.   

DM: That question, that key question that Faisal Islam was raising there about an opportunity, a huge opportunity for your party to occupy the centre ground and it is something you mustn’t fluff, you won’t be given a second chance.

MARK FIELD: It’s interesting, the phrase is the common ground and I think it’s understanding where the British public are coming from, not some short term tactics because the centre ground in politics moves from time to time, it changed from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair and everything else and so getting some of the issues that are close to the public’s heart and I think that what we’ve said here today – security, stability, opportunity – these are the three big watchwords that we are able to have in what is a very uncertain world and I would agree with Faisal, politically we shouldn’t take anything for granted and I don't think there is any sign of that in many ways, having got a surprising victory and I think it was a surprise to most of us in the party that we got an overall majority.  We have pushed ahead very quickly in a number of areas to make some reforms and I think there is an opportunity now in relation to infrastructure for example where we can say right, let’s make some plans not just for the next five years but for ten or fifteen years, not that we will necessarily be in office for all of that time but I think we can start looking longer ahead for the good of British people.  

DM: Okay, let’s hear from two of your colleagues making their first appearance at conference as MPs, James Cleverly and Andrea Jenkyns, very good to see you there in the sunshine in Manchester.  Andrea Jenkyns, what do you see as the opportunities and potential pitfalls ahead as the Conservative party tries to colonise that centre ground, that common ground?  

ANDREA JENKYNS: I think the opportunities, we have really hit the ground running so to me it is about delivery.  We have already hit the ground running regarding our manifesto pledges, look at introducing the national living wage, that’s a great thing to be moving on with, the seven day NHS and I think it’s all about showing the British public that we are a party that we deliver what we say.  I myself stood in a traditional Labour area, I’m not taking for granted that we got these votes and it is now an opportunity to build on that.  

DM: James Cleverly, we talked before you became an MP and a lot of your constituents and Andrea Jenkyns was talking there about the living wage but a lot of your constituents are going to be hit by these cuts in tax credits that go along with the living wage.   

JAMES CLEVERLY: What most of my constituents want and what I got on the doorstep during the election is they want jobs for themselves and for their kids, they want the economy to be buoyant so that they feel secure both in their homes and in their work and actually taken as a whole, if you look at the things that we’re doing around the National Living Wage, cutting tax for the lowest earning in society, boosting jobs, reducing unemployment – these are the things that people wanted us to deliver, these are the things that we are delivering in government and these are the things that we will continue delivering in government.  

DM: Andrea Jenkyns, can you come in on this, I bet they didn’t want you to cut their tax credits, hard working families, the blue collar Conservatives that Mr Osborne has been talking about, hitting them in the bread basket, the figures are indisputable that many, many hundreds of thousands if not millions of households will lose out with those cuts in tax credits.

ANDREA JENKYNS: Let’s see what happens. We have increased the personal allowance, we’ve reduced taxes and the only way that we are going to create security for people in our communities is by having a strong economy and that’s the only way we are going to secure people’s jobs and ensure they are secure in their wage really.   

DM: Mark Field, come in on this, I bet not too many of your constituents actually are on tax credits but do you have concerns about the signals it sends out about the party?  

MARK FIELD: No, on the contrary, we are actually tackling the desperate legacy of Gordon Brown’s economics.  The whole tax credit thing came in after 1997, was due to cost no more than £600 million a year.   Working tax credits, [inaudible] of course a range of other tax credits, working tax credits last year cost £11 billion a year …

DM: That’s the analysis but now the method that has been employed to put that right, if you think it needs putting right.  

MARK FIELD: The method we are employing is pretty straight forward, what we are saying is that we should have a move towards a living wage as opposed to just a minimum wage and obviously significant numbers of people who are on tax credits will benefit from that but also there has got to be a sense in which employers take a bit of responsibility.  The notion that they will turn round and say okay, we’ll pay people at a minimum level and throw ourselves down at the mercy of the state because we know that [inaudible] £5 an hour of working tax credits, it’s simply not a viable way forward and George Osborne …

DM: But you are telling all these families and James Cleverly and Andrea Jenkyns, you are telling these families that they are collateral damage.  Three million households will be getting letters before Christmas telling them that their families will be hundreds of pounds worse off per year, you can’t deny that.  Is that a good way of sending out those signals that you represent the hard working people in society?

JAMES CLEVERLY: The message that people need to hear and it is our responsibility to make sure they hear that message, is that the employer is the person who is responsible for making sure that working people have enough money to live their lives and our responsibility in the Conservative party and in government is to make sure that businesses are growing and thriving and making money so that they can pay their employees a decent salary.  It’s the employers job to pay the decent salary, not the job of the government to make up the shortfall from bad employers.  

DM: But Andrea Jenkyns, I am talking about individual families, many hundreds of thousands if not millions of them, you are telling them it is for the good of society, you must make this sacrifice and meantime they look at people with £1 million houses getting a huge inheritance tax break.  

ANDREA JENKYNS: They also look at the fact of how we are increasing the childcare support, we are really trying to help working families to really have support in life really.  Yes, I can understand what you are saying about the tax credits but we are having a national living wage, we’re increasing childcare so we are putting measures in place to support families.  It’s got to pay to work really.

DM: Okay, last thought on that Mark Field, you are happy that you are now grasping this opportunity and sending the signals out that you are a one nation party?

MARK FIELD: Yes, I think we have got to grasp the nettle essentially and ultimately the election results showed that the public realised that we couldn’t go back to what had happened in the past where we were living miles beyond our means.  We still have a significant deficit that we need to pay down year on year, we have a large accumulated debt that comes forward but one thing I would say to you, I know my colleagues have also been talking on this issue now, there are a number of other issues that we want to discuss …

DM: But, but you don’t want to discuss divisively the issue of Europe.  Your party loves having a go at each other about …

MARK FIELD: I am very comfortable about discussing the issue of Europe and I think an important thing to remember is reform and renegotiation of our relationship with the European Union, it is a process as opposed to being a destination.  It is not just about what happens over the next twelve to eighteen months in the run up to a referendum.  I am pretty convinced that David Cameron will come back with a pretty convincing package in relation to welfare, migration, protection of our financial services but I think the important thing is that there is now an appetite not just in the United Kingdom but through much of Europe that we should be looking at this reform package for many years to come.  Obviously a large scale treaty change will be …

DM: You’ll certainly be discussing it for many months to come.  

MARK FIELD: I think the public out there recognise that we should have  referendum, the first time in forty years and it will be for the people of the country to decide but this whole reform agenda as I say, it is a destination rather than something that will end when we’ve had our referendum.  

DM: Sorry we are out of time.  Mark Field, with me in the studio, thank you very much and thanks once again to James Cleverly and Andrea Jenkyns there.