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'No, Gordon, I do NOT use my children as props' says David Cameron
By PETER OBORNE and JAMES CHAPMAN
This was to be an extraordinarily wide-ranging interview.
One moment the man who is now Britain's presumptive Premier-in-waiting promises to restore weekly bin collections.
The next, such revolutionary proposals as giving a new independent fiscal body powers to oversee state borrowing and spending.
David Cameron with his wife Samantha, daughter Nancy and son Arthur. In a wide-ranging interview Mr Cameron defended his family and urged his party against complacency
On the personal front, he is utterly candid. He speaks about his disabled son and completely rejects Gordon Brown's charge that he uses him as a 'prop'.
He defends criticism that his wife exploited her connection to him to promote her business but, yes, mistakes had been made.
His worry as he ushers us into his Commons office is not his keynote speech to next week's Tory Party conference, or even the glimmer of a Labour recovery in the polls.
Instead, he is fretting about a series of bizarrely personal attacks on him by Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman.
Cameron cradling son Ivan: He has denied using his children as 'props'
She had described him as 'the sort of man your mother used to warn you about' and told women voters that 'if he got his wicked way with you - in the ballot box - you'd never hear from him again'.
Cameron responds: 'Harriet keeps talking about me in these rather strange and personal terms. I think she rather needs to go and get some help. I am slightly concerned. Her references to me are all about how I am trying to seduce people. You know, I think she should go and have a sit down.'
Harman, it seems, is not the only woman politician on his radar. Given pride of place on his table is a framed photograph showing him beaming with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and another with Angela Merkel, inscribed with a friendly message from the German Chancellor. ('An amazing woman,' Cameron says. 'Amazing.')
It is almost exactly a year since David Cameron saved his political career with his famous speech to the Tory conference in Blackpool, delivered entirely without notes but with enough passion to spook Mr Brown into calling off the general election which, Cameron would admit, if being honest, that the Tories would almost certainly have lost.
Next week, his task will be different. He is now between ten and 20 points ahead in the polls. Instead of fending off electoral defeat, his biggest problem is to fend off the charge of arrogance and triumphalism.
Conference pledge from David Cameron - 'We'll bring back weekly bin rounds' Cameron pledges to create a watchdog to 'call time' on government borrowing
So Cameron is quick to condemn the decision by a small group of Tory candidates, among them socialite Annunziata Rees-Mogg, to flaunt themselves in an excruciating group photograph for society magazine Tatler.
'Am I completely happy with all that?' asks Cameron rhetorically. 'No.'
However, Cameron insists that they are still 'great candidates' - and declines our suggestion that after the drink-fuelled confusion in Labour ranks of Ruth Kelly's Cabinet resignation at this week's conference, he should tell his MPs and aides to go to bed early and stay sober during their meeting in Birmingham.
No novice: Cameron rejects Gordon Brown's insinuations that he does not have enough experience to be leader of the country
So what will be their strategy next week?
'The point is that the Conservative Party has got to demonstrate that it is deadly serious about not being complacent,' he says.
So eager is he to dismiss claims that he has had alarmingly little to say on the current economic crisis that he lets slip more than he means to about the conference's big fiscal announcement.
A Tory government, he reveals, will rein in some of the Treasury's powers and massively strengthen the Bank of England.
Fundamental change was necessary because Britain was on the edge of financial disaster: 'What happens with tax revenues when they go down is that they can fall off a very steep cliff. For example, the Royal Bank of Scotland paid £4 billion in taxes last year, but this year will probably pay nothing.'
This autumn, says Cameron, Britain is 'looking down the barrel'.
At a time when some economists are projecting that Government borrowing is set to crash through the £100 billion barrier, he says an incoming Tory government will take away key powers to oversee tax and spending from the Treasury.
So a crucial supervisory role will be handed to an outside body which will be given independent powers to monitor spending and borrowing levels. Cameron will explain next week how this body would work.
The Tory leader describes his wife Samantha as an 'amazing woman' and denies she has used her position to advance her business interests
He says this major reform is necessary because Gordon Brown's 'fiscal rules [that Government debt should not be more than 40 per cent of national income and that tax should cover spending over an economic cycle] have failed.'
'We need to look at the underlying causes which are linked to the high levels of indebtedness of both the Government and the private and corporate sectors,' he says.
'And the problem I think we have - and I will be setting it out next week - is there is no one to call time on Government debt.
'The fiscal rules haven't worked - it's obvious. We are at the end of 14 years of economic growth and we have got an enormous deficit. What we need is external judgment of fiscal policy.'
Potentially, this move is comparable to Gordon Brown's bold decision to award the Bank of England its independence 11 years ago.
While Brown's decision only stripped central Government of the power to set interest rates, Cameron's pledge to allow independent experts to oversee spending commitments and government borrowing appears even more audacious and far-reaching.
'We must never have a situation where we get to the end of a long period of economic growth and we have so much government debt.
'And at the end of a period of economic growth, we mustn't have such an asset bubble. And that is where we will be setting out a new role for the Bank of England,' he says.
He envisages huge new powers for the Bank. It will be given a new role in monitoring consumer and company debt: 'The Bank needs to be given an oversight role there, and we will be setting out how that would work as well.'
In addition, the Bank will be set the task of averting bank disasters like Northern Rock.
'We must give the Bank of England the power to rescue and administer failing banks,' says Cameron.
Significantly, he refuses, however, to follow the Archbishop of Canterbury and others in outright condemnation of the culture of City bonuses and the capitalist system, though it is clear such comments would be popular.
'It is very important in the midst of this crisis that politicians don't just follow the crowd and say "let us beat up the entire market system, let's beat up the City of London.'' I don't begrudge people who earn a lot of money. You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer.
'I think the answer is to ask the Financial Services Authority to look at the bonus structures of banks when they judge how risky they are.'
We discuss the wider economy. It is clear that the present financial crisis has forced him and his Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, to discard many of their plans.
Particularly, he now expects to inherit a massive black hole in the public finances.
Indeed, he is unable to rule out having to put taxes up, rather than cutting them as many on the Right of his party are urging.
'No responsible Opposition can ever say never,' he says.
'But our intention is to get control of spending, unlike the current government.
'Obviously, the higher the debt is, the worse the situation is, the more we will have to say to people, "Yes, we want to get spending under control. Yes, we want to get your taxes down. But we are facing a very difficult economic situation and we are going to have to say we believe in reducing your taxes, but this is going to take tough decisions, and take time."'
Cameron has backed London Mayor Boris Johnson: 'I think he is doing well'
Cameron also reveals he will be setting out eye-catching proposals to restore weekly bin collections in the wake of a Daily Mail campaign and furious public opposition to the imposition of fortnightly rounds.
It's clear, he says, that the change has led to an increase in rats and other vermin, as well as a surge in illegal fly-tipping of rubbish. So he will tell all the councils that have abandoned weekly collections - including, it must be said, many that are Tory-run - to bring them back.
A Conservative government will pay for the change by axeing layers of local government bureaucracy, he says. Any that refuse to do so, even though the money is available, will face the consequences at the ballot box.
Brimming with ideas, Cameron is stung by Gordon Brown's charge this week that he is a 'novice' who cannot be trusted to steer Britain through the current crises.
'Look at what's happened with the "experienced" Gordon Brown: the biggest budget deficit in the industrialised world, and a regulatory system which failed to stop the collapse of the first bank to go under in 160 years,' he says.
'Presiding over a debt-fuelled boom where people were taking out 125 per cent mortgages, who could never afford to pay them off.
And what of his own 'experience'? He points to his time as a 26-yearold advisor in the Treasury on Black Wednesday and then working for Michael Howard in the Home Office as he successfully brought down crime rates, not forgetting his seven years at Carlton Communications, one of the UK's leading media companies.
'I mean, that is more experience of government than Tony Blair had, more experience of business than Gordon Brown had.'
He is scathing, too, about Mr Brown's Downing Street operation.
'I can't ever remember some sort of halfbaked spin doctor having to announce the resignation of a Cabinet minister [Ruth Kelly] in a hotel lobby at 3am.'
He describes the scenes as 'Nixonian' - referring to the disgraced former U.S. President - and is seething about Mr Brown's conference speech claim that the Shadow Chancellor had extolled those who make 'loads of money out of the misery of others' on the financial markets when, in fact, George Osborne had said such a spectacle 'isn't pleasant to watch'.
On the other hand, he is much more relaxed about the Prime Minister's charge that he uses his children as 'props' - having let the media photograph his three children (Ivan, who is seriously disabled, Nancy and Arthur).
'My view is very simple: I am asking people a massive thing to make me their Prime Minister and they need to know a little bit about you, what makes you tick. I am the father of young kids - and my family is very important. All you can do in public life is do what you feel comfortable with.
'Some people criticise me for talking about Ivan, but he is an important part of my life. My view is that this whole thing of children and wives - do what you feel comfortable with and let people judge you.'
Equally, he rejects the view that his wife, Samantha, creative director of upmarket stationer's Smythson, has exploited her connection to him to promote her business.
Recently it emerged that a poignant photo of the Tory leader cradling one of their children was being used by the firm to promote personalised Christmas cards.
'That was a terrible mistake,' Cameron admits.
'This was six years ago when Smythson was a much smaller company. They were literally having a whip round among the staff - we needed some pictures to go up on the website for postcards or something.
'I was a backbench MP at the time and no one would have recognised me from the picture. But then obviously it had stayed on the website which they were very sorry about, but it was completely not meant to be.'
He says his wife 'tries very hard' not to confuse her roles and even hints that her career has suffered as a result, suggesting she has turned down opportunities to promote her products.
'Inevitably if you are married to me and you work in business, people are going to point the finger at you. She totally understands that. She tries very hard to be extremely careful.
'It is difficult for her. She has worked in the company for ten years as the product designer, she is not just some sort of promoter of it. She designs the handbags, and the books and the everything, and so it is very difficult for her.
'All I would say is that I am incredibly proud of my wife and she is an amazing woman, brilliant mother, brilliant wife, and a fantastic businesswoman.'
Turning to the future of his top team, Cameron gives a clear signal that he intends to bring back the 'big beasts' of the last Tory government. Ken Clarke is tipped as leader of the House of Commons, while Michael Howard may become Lord Chancellor.
'It seems to me what the Prime Minister does is leave out the big beasts - appoint kind of a bit of a second division and then publicly humiliate them.'
In comparison, he says he wants 'big figures.'
Intriguingly, it seems the door is open, too, to senior figures on the Blairite wing of the Labour Party such as schools minister Lord Adonis, and former welfare minister Frank Field.
Cameron goes on to adopt the tone of an indulgent parent when asked about Boris Johnson, who has already lost a string of senior staff as the new Tory Mayor of London and managed to describe his leader's claim that Britain's society is broken as 'piffle'.
'I think he is doing well,' Cameron insists, and reveals that they had dinner together last week and had a fruitful discussion with his fellow old Etonian on his views about social breakdown.
But, above all, it is his critics' charges that the Tories are arrogant and complacent that he keeps returning to and is most anxious to reject.
'There is nothing in the bag,' he says of the Tory poll lead.
'Those people who say that we haven't sealed the deal are completely right. We have got a massive amount to do. The big enemy is not Labour, or Brown or Miliband.
'It is cynicism, it is apathy - comments that "you are all the same, your snouts are in the trough, you won't make a difference. You all say the same stuff but you won't actually do it".
'We have got to prove to people we have got the team and the plan. We understand what is broken about our politics, and we are going to roll up our sleeves and put it right.
'I think inevitably people will look for examples of people being too pleased with themselves, and I hope they don't find them.'
The world economic collapse has posed many problems for Gordon Brown. But it is just as much a challenge for the Tory leader.
David Cameron's whole strategy for winning power is having to be rethought - almost day by day - as the turmoil in international markets and Britain's public finances worsens. Next week, we will learn whether he is up to the task.