ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: We are told that Ed Miliband will launch into class warfare with the Conservatives this week, so where does that leave Cameron’s cabinet of so-called public school posh boys. Let’s say a very good morning to the Conservative Party Chairman, Grant Shapps. I want to put something to you first of all that Lord Prescott, who was on the programme earlier, said. I think first of all he called you Grant Schnapps but that’s Lord Prescott isn’t it? He also called you two tags, you get the reference there, because what’s this about your alter ego, Michael Green, who we’ve seen you pictured wearing a name badge at a conference in America?

GRANT SHAPPS: That’s right, before I went in to parliament I used to write business publications and, like many authors, write under a business name. I was always very open about it and actually went to one conference, where that picture was from, and it was an open fact. It was in my biography, it was in the conference programme.

DM: Okay, so it was nothing about being able to carry out business activities without referencing them, without declaring them and things like that?

GS: No, no but I’ve seen some extraordinary headlines though, things about leading double lives as if I were Francois Mitterrand with his second family and things. No, no, my wife and I set up the business, we have always been very open about it and had a business author’s name as many authors do. It was all a long time ago now, I’ve not been involved for a long time.

DM: Okay but just briefly on similar things, which isn’t a long time ago, people saying there has been some tinkering with your Wikipedia entry, particularly about your schooling.

GS: That’s extraordinary, yes. Let me tell you about that, absolutely extraordinary, what happened was that somebody edited in O Level results for me which were inaccurate, in fact over stating one of my O level results so I actually corrected it. In fact I didn’t get an A, I can reveal, in my Craft Design and Technology, only a B. I edited it down to a B and apparently this is a scandal. I also took out references to being a Jehovah’s Witness which I am not, and what have you but anyway, the story was that because I’d corrected misinformation on there many years ago when I was first an MP, that’s been blown out of all proportion now.

DM: Okay, thanks for clearing it up but let’s get on to the substantive stuff and we understand that …

GS: If you look at the page now you’ll find lots of rubbish on there.

DM: As I say, we understand there is going to be some heavy artillery exchanges coming up between your party and the Labour party about who is more in touch with the public and the backgrounds of the leaderships. Do you feel ready for battle on that front?

GS: I think if there’s one thing that the British people understand it’s that you can’t solve a debt crisis, the principal problem that not only us but the rest of Europe are experiencing, without cutting the debt and one of the things that you have got to do is start with the deficit and so far this Labour conference, less than a day old, they have already made £3 billion of unfunded spending commitments through things like the tuition fees, stamp duty and this bizarre thing that they keep talking about, pre-distribution. Let’s just get that clear, that means spending money that nation hasn’t got in advance and it is exactly the kind of spend and borrowing and debt that got us into this problem in the first place, so Labour really isn’t learning anything about all the things that got us into this mess in the first place.

DM: Okay, and that’s where you want to keep the debate focused because as Labour have been doing increasingly, turning it on to the issue of who’s leading this country, where they come from, what their background is, how they were educated, going to public schools where the fees amount to more than most people earn in a year.

GS: Look, I think it is just really sad than rather than talking about the serious issues, the big overhanging problem of debt and the deficit, instead they want to talk about these things. The party is made up of people from lots of different backgrounds, personally I went to a grammar school that actually operated as a comprehensive at the time and I just think that people care more about your ideas for the future than they do about trying to recreate some class battle. Again, Labour are living in the past, in old Britain and they are really not learning about some of the things which got us in this mess in the first place.

DM: Well I mean it does matter. We saw the furore over your colleague, the Chief Whip, Andrew Mitchell, about the form of language it’s alleged he chose to use. Of course he denies that.

GS: Well I don't think there is any excuse ever for rudeness actually and personally I find all the police and the staff around Downing Street very polite. He’s apologised, unreservedly, and I think it is time to draw a line and move on but I would say that to say this is a replacement for having real policies in place and if you look at the kind of mood music so far coming out of Manchester at the Labour party conference, it is more of the same, it’s the stuff that we’ve heard thousands of times before. They think you can solve everything with spending money, even though the nation doesn’t have that money to spend, and those solutions have been tried, they’ve failed. Look what’s happening in Greece, in Spain, you’ll understand what will happen in this country if we don’t deal with the deficit which is why we’ve tackled a quarter of the deficit so far, it’s why it’s absolutely essential that we carry on on this path otherwise our kids, our children are going to be the ones who pay for what we’re doing today. Labour hasn’t learnt this lesson, they are not learning about it, they are coming up with more of the same.

DM: A lot of viewers will be interested in this exchange in terms of what we are expecting to hear from Mr Miliband about his relatively ordinary background and you are quite clearly focusing it on deficit reduction and the legacy from the last Labour administration. Let me try this theory on you, that you are actually rather relaxed about Ed Miliband still being in charge of the Labour party because as we close in on the next election, the time is not now but as we do close in on that, you will focus increasingly then on his personal qualities.

GS: Look, actually I am more interested, as I have been trying to do in this interview, in talking about their policies such as they are, and they haven’t got many, that the Opposition would bring in if they were in government and I am more interested in that and less interested in the kind of personality politics as you’ve put it but the truth is that so far all we’re hearing is more of the same, the same kind of solutions that they’re espousing are the things that got us into the problems in the first place so I’d much rather talk about that, I’d much rather talk about the policy, that’s where we’re going to be focusing but the truth is, Labour simply isn’t learning about what they did wrong in the past, they haven’t learnt about that and they are not learning for the future. We have seen today Len McClusky from the Unite union, Labour’s single biggest funder, £6 million put in, saying we’re taking the Labour party back, the unions are taking the Labour party back and everyone knows I think that Ed Miliband was elected by exactly those unions against his brother. So let him deal with his problem, my view is that Labour isn’t learning and it is more of the same from them.

DM: But it could be a problem for you in coalition couldn’t it because a lot of what Ed Miliband is saying, and what others within Labour are saying, has got a resonance within your coalition colleagues in the Liberal Democrats, what they’re saying about the bankers, what they are saying about predatory capitalism.

GS: Look, here’s a secretary, I’d much rather we were in government and able to govern as a majority Conservative government is what we’ll be trying to do in two and a half years but in the meantime the one thing you can say for this coalition is our coalition partners and us have worked together solidly to try to deal with the biggest problem facing this country and that is of course the debt. Say what you like about the coalition, one thing we have done is focused on that issue above everything else and you only have to look overseas to see what happens when you don’t, when you fail to do that. The cost of borrowing for the nation rockets whereas at the moment we are enjoying some historic lows in terms of borrowing and that’s really important because we’ve got a big debt there and actually you’ve got to service that debt. So those are the really big issues and I have to say the coalition remains strong, it remains in place but yes, I’d ideally love us to govern on our own and that’s what we’ll be looking to do after the next election.

DM: Well you certainly focused on that this morning, Mr Shapps, thank you very much indeed. The Conservative Party Chairman there, Grant Shapps.