What we’re putting forward is the most radical reform of the welfare state… for 60 years. I think it will have a transformative effect in making sure that everyone is better off in work and better off working rather than on benefits.

The well of public opinion has been well and truly poisoned by the Iraq episode.

What you call austerity is what I might call efficiency.

The next Prime Minister walking through that door will be me or Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, you can choose an economy that grows, that creates jobs, that generates the money to ensure a properly funded and improving National Health Service ... and a government that will cut taxes for 30 million hard-working people ... or you can choose the economic chaos of Ed Miliband's Britain.

If we are going to try to get across to the poorest people in the world that we care about their plight and we want them to join one world with the rest of us, we have got to make promises and keep promises.

My question right now would be to Colonel Gaddafi, which is: 'What on earth do you think you are doing? Stop it.'

We spend billions of pounds on welfare, yet millions are trapped on welfare. It's not worth their while going into work.