Howard appeals for trust

Michael Howard today appealed to wavering Tories to come back to the flock with a sweeping programme of pledges on schools, health, immigration, Europe and crime.

Making a direct appeal to voters who went over to the UK Independence Party in the local elections and Hartlepool by-election, he promised: "It's time to bring back powers from Europe. If you want to bring back powers from Brussels to Britain, come and join us."

Making his first conference speech as Conservative leader, he admitted the public had been deceived by parties of all colours in the past and vowed: "I'm going to give it to you straight."

Putting trust and credibility at the heart of his election campaign, he promised to sack any Tory ministers who failed to deliver on an action plan covering the first days, weeks and months of a future Tory government.

"We will promise only what we can deliver," he told the Bournemouth gathering. "What we start we will follow through." Mr Howard was speaking against a backdrop of disappointing polls, including one showing that only 12per cent of voters think he will ever become Prime Minister. He countered the gloom with a volley of promises that he said would "respect people's dreams and turn them into reality".

Claiming the public wanted "action not words" he mocked Tony Blair's style: "Most people don't want a date with destiny. They just

want a date with a dentist." On immigration he added: "I think we've reached a turning point. We cannot allow uncontrolled immigration to Britain to continue."

Mr Howard refused to promise income tax cuts but said: "When I can, I will cut taxes. But I won't make promises I cannot keep."

On crime, he promised 5,000 more police officers along with new prisons to allow harsher sentencing and an end to early releases.

"The gloves will come off," he said. "What Giuliani did in New York, we will do for the whole of Britain: a war on crime." The police had become "distant and remote" because they were "handcuffed by paperwork". Mr Howard said the forms would go "in the appropriate filing tray - the bin".

The Tory leader was also promising to scrap fixed-penalty fines for shoplifting, which he said had decriminalised theft.

Labour's early release scheme was accused of leading to 3,600 crimes, including rape, by ex-offenders.

"All this has to change. We need a government that will stand up for the silent, law-abiding majority who play by the rules and pay their dues.

"Career criminals and dangerous offenders should be in prison - not roaming the streets. So we will build more prisons."

Describing drugs as the root of much crime, he promised 18,000 more rehabilitation schemes and a choice for criminals between "prison or treatment".

"As a society we've blurred the distinction between right and wrong. We've tolerated a slow but relentless decline in personal responsibility.

You hear it all the time: 'I've got my rights' - the verbal equivalent of two fingers to authority," he said.

In a speech clearly designed to appeal to "grey voters", he attacked ministers for allowing more people to die from NHS hospital-acquired infections than in road accidents.

He described how his 89-year-old mother-in-law Rosalie had died from an infection in hospital.

"Yes, she was old. Yes, she was frail. But she still enjoyed life. She need not have died," he said.

In the most personal passage, Mr Howard talked of the slaughter of members of his family in the Nazi Holocaust and how, as refugees, they found sanctuary in Britain.

"My grandmother was one of those killed in the concentration camps. If it hadn't been for Winston Churchill, and if it hadn't been for Britain, I would have been one of them too.

"That's why when I say I owe everything I am to this country, I really do mean it. I owe my life to it. I'm here so I can give back to Britain a tiny fraction of what Britain has given to me."