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This is followed through with the pupil premium, which is being protected in real terms. This allows schools to provide targeted support to disadvantaged pupils. The conservative element is that headteachers get to decide how best the £900 per pupil is spent.
Carry this through to apprenticeships, and again the government is directing funds to give young people the skills they need to succeed. In my constituency alone, apprenticeship starts have increased by 78 per cent in the last year.
Real terms growth in the NHS and social care budgets show a commitment to the social contract with the British people. This is a social contract, not a socialist contract. Increased NHS spending is being combined with stripping out unnecessary tiers of management and bureaucracy, and enhancing patient choice.
Towards the end of the life cycle, the triple lock guarantee that the basic state pension increases each and every year by the highest of earnings, prices or 2.5 per cent.
Compassionate Conservatism is not just about spending. The chancellor’s cradle to grave conservatism is matched by tough reforms to the welfare state, the introduction of Universal Credit, and getting 1.5 million people back into work. Wealth has been redistributed from the rich to the poor by raising the tax threshold to £10,000. The rich have been taxed more every year under this government than they ever were under Gordon Brown, confirmed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Cradle to grave conservatism is not a left-wing agenda. It is in the great tradition of conservative social reform. It is possible to be a compassionate government without saddling future generations with debt.
Robert Halfon is Conservative MP for Harlow.
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