LETTER FROM DAVID CAMERON MP, THE U.K PRIME MINISTER

Dear Ahmed, With Christmas fast approaching, I want to thank you for the incredible support you have given the Party this year. It has been a remarkable seven months since the election - and I hope you agree there is much that Conservatives can be proud of. The decision to form the coalition was the right one: two parties have come together in the national interest to clean up the mess left by Labour, and we are already delivering on our agreement. Our first priority has been the economy. We promised to tackle Labour's record borrowing, and we've done exactly that. In May the Chancellor made immediate in-year savings of £6 billion. In June his emergency Budget brought Britain back from the brink with a plan that the markets have welcomed to eliminate the structural deficit. And the Spending Review in October put the public finances on a sustainable footing for the rest of this Parliament and beyond. We've also been working to get the economy moving. We've scrapped Labour's planned jobs tax, cut corporation tax, invested in apprenticeships, and helped new businesses in the regions. I've always said that I would back the NHS. So the Spending Review delivered on our promise of real terms growth in NHS spending - an extra £10.6 billion over this Parliament. We've also created a £200 million cancer drugs fund, and started to remove layers of unnecessary NHS bureaucracy. But this government is about much more than sound public finance and better spending. We are committed to radical reform across the public services to change Britain for the better, and in seven months we've made a strong start. We promised to get people off benefit and to make work pay. That's why we will be capping housing benefit, have created an ambitious work programme, and will be taking 880,000 low paid workers out of income tax altogether. We promised to control immigration. That's why we are introducing a cap on economic migration, and working to reduce migration via the student and family visa routes. We promised to raise standards in our schools. That's why we've legislated to enable every school to become an academy and to give more power to teachers to maintain discipline. We've also tackled the challenge of university funding. We promised to help the poorest and the most vulnerable. That's why after years of talk from Labour, we are restoring the earnings link to pensions. And that's why this month, we announced a £430 per pupil premium to help schools do more for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Locally we are putting real power back in the hands of our communities, as well as freezing council tax, scrapping bin taxes, stopping garden grabbing and abolishing Home Information Packs. Our Strategic Defence and Security Review has secured Britain's defence capability to 2020 and beyond, including the renewal of Trident. We've doubled the operational allowance for our troops in Afghanistan. We've also ensured that people will get a referendum next time there is a proposal for the European Union to take more powers away from our Parliament. These are all long standing objectives of ours being delivered with the help of the majority that the coalition gives us. Of course, we would have preferred an outright victory. But I believe that we can take real pride in what we've achieved so far. Labour left us a terrible legacy. They more than doubled the national debt and gave us the biggest budget deficit in our peacetime history. Sorting out the public finances, pushing through really radical reforms right across the public services, giving people more choice, and building stronger local communities - this is an agenda that Conservatives can support vigorously - and it's in the national interest too. We are changing Britain for the better. Next year will be no less challenging, and lots of campaigning lies ahead with local elections in much of England in May, together with the Scottish Parliamentary and Welsh Assembly elections, and the AV referendum too. I look forward to seeing many of you out on the campaign trail in 2011. But, for now, have a very Happy Christmas.