The major speech of the day came from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander MP. As our senior Scottish MP in the cabinet, Danny started his speech by thanking everyone who helped in the Scottish Referendum, in support of the No campaign. He also reaffirmed Liberal Democrat policy that we should have votes for 16 & 17 year olds in all elections as they did in the referendum.

Danny said Liberal Democrats should be proud that we gave the country strong government in 2010 at a time when we needed it most. He reminded delegates that Labour had bankrupted the country and that they should never be trusted to run the country by themselves again.

Since the Liberal Democrats had been in government, 27 million people had benefited from income tax cuts by the raising of the threshold to £10,500. This is something David Cameron said could not be done during the 2010 election campaign. Danny Alexander said we would raise the tax free threshold to £12,500 in the next parliament. This could only be guaranteed to be done fairly by Liberal Democrats being in government next time.

Danny Alexander said Liberal Democrats would borrow less than Labour and cut public spending less than the Tories. He said we would insist on a fairness rule on any changes to tax and benefits.