We are determined to share the proceeds of economic prosperity between high quality public services and tax cuts that give people more control over their own lives

Oliver Letwin

Mr Letwin told representatives at the Tory conference in Bournemouth: "We are determined to share the proceeds of economic prosperity between high quality public services and tax cuts that give people more control over their own lives."

"We will achieve that golden combination through a war on waste and a rigorous test on every item of public expenditure."

Only projects that were deemed under that test to be more a worthwhile use of taxpaxers' money "than letting a family put a better meal on their own table" could go ahead.

Brown spending �12,000 a second

Mr Letwin attacked the chancellor saying: "While we are here in this hall someone called Gordon Brown is spending �12,000 a second."

And the chancellor, Mr Letwin asserted, had plans that would mean that spending would rise to �14,000 a second in three years time.

"We are determined to share the proceeds of economic prosperity between high quality public services and tax cuts that give people more control over their own lives.

"To fund that [Mr Brown] would need to raise another �9,000 a year from every taxpayer in Britain.

"If he still believes in petrol taxes by that time and if, heaven forfend, he's still in power by then, he will need to add another 390p a litre."

The Tories - on the other hand - were offering a tax system that was "prudent, moderate and sustainable", he said.