In tough times, everyone has to take their share of the pain.

We campaigned on the fact that we were going to have to take difficult decisions because of the state of the public finances. When we got into government we discovered that actually the public finances were in an even worse state than we thought...

People will be able to raise their concerns: what are local officers doing about the drug dealing in the local park? What's happening about the pub where all the trouble is? And the police will have to respond.

Britain is an open and tolerant country.

Well can I just make a point about the numbers because people talk a lot about police numbers as if police numbers are the holy grail. But actually what matters is what those police are doing. It's about how those police are deployed.

I disagree with the analysis that you've put about what happened in relation to the student demonstrations and protests and the incident with the Prince of Wales' car. We're very clear that we have to separate out the political responsibility from operational responsibility of the police.

The Conservative Party's always stood in every seat and I think it's important to us and I’m personally very pleased that we plan to continue to run candidates in Northern Ireland as well.