I didn't come from a traditional Tory background; it was urban and metropolitan.

I think you can look at the British economy with confidence.

Every day as Chancellor I see alerts telling me of risks around the world.

At the moment we are hard-wired into the European markets - 50% of our exports go to Europe - and that has not been good for the UK. So I'm not saying "make Britain entirely dependent on China". I'm saying "let's diversify a bit". When I became chancellor, China was our ninth largest trading partner. This is the world's second biggest economy. China was doing more business with Belgium than it was with Britain.

We are pretty tough in saying for example if you've got unsecured debts and less than £25,000 that should not be an excuse for repossessing someone's home.That should not be allowed.You have got to help manage people through this process. I don't want to pretend that it is going to be easy getting out of Gordon Brown's hole.

We have to be pretty tough with mortgage companies and say you have got to give people the chance to work out their debts, sort out future mortgages.

Just as we should never balance the budget on the backs of the poor, so it is an economic delusion to think you can balance it only on the wallets of the rich.