Liam Fox urges David Cameron to tackle Lib Dems over UK economy Liam Fox has called on the prime minister to take on the Liberal Democrats and ensure Conservative party policy is put in place. Former defence secretary Liam Fox has challenged David Cameron to take on his Liberal Democrat coalition partners and push through reforms making it easier for employers to hire and fire staff. In his first major television interview since he was forced to quit the cabinet four months ago, Fox said the prime minister needed to remember that Tory MPs made up the majority of the coalition and they wanted to see their agenda implemented in full. He warned that unless Cameron was prepared to override the Lib Dems over the issue of labour market reforms, he would be consigning Britain to a future of "managed decline." "The objections inside government and outside government - but, yes, including some of the arguments put forward by our coalition partners - they need to be taken on and overridden otherwise we become about managed decline for Britain," he told BBC1's Sunday Politics. The whole government needs to understand the importance of this. This case is vital to our national economic survival. Fox said Cameron needed to reassure his own political base that he understood their concerns in the face of "a great deal of public lobbying" by the Lib Dems for their agenda. The Lib Dems have certainly been quite vocal in saying what they want. I don't think it is necessarily the best way to be running a coalition," he said. Certainly among Conservative activists there is the perception that the Liberal Democrats are far more free to voice what they want than some of the Conservatives are. The Conservatives, who make up five-sixths of the coalition - not half the coalition - need to be also reassured that the Conservative agenda is being fully implemented. Fox said he would like to see the 50p top rate of tax abolished "if it is possible" in next month's budget. However, he said the "top priority" for chancellor George Osborne should be cuts to taxes for employers rather than reducing personal taxation. His words will strike a chord with many Tory MPs who believe the Lib Dems wield too much influence in the coalition. They may also raise concerns in Downing Street that he could become a rallying point for disaffected backbenchers. Fox refused to say whether he believed he deserved to lose his place in the cabinet over his links with the lobbyist Adam Werritty. "I don't think it really matters, things are what they are," he said. However, he confirmed that he still hoped to make a return to government in the future. "You come into politics to be able to make a difference," he said. Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes made clear that his party would not be silenced and would continue to fight their corner in the coalition. We are a coalition. Because no party had a majority at the last election," he told the Sunday Politics. The Liberal Democrats are entitled to put their case to the country and we do that. He said the priority in the budget should be to raise personal tax allowances, in line with the coalition agreement. "We are determined that the ordinary households get a better deal and are paying less tax so they have more to spend," he said. We want the normal family, the millions of people - not the few people with high incomes - to have more in their pockets. That is why we are making the case to go further and faster lifting the personal allowance up to £10,000.