Lilley sets agenda to lift party spirit

TORIES IN BLACKPOOL

Fresh curbs on welfare "scroungers" are to be announced by Peter Lilley, confirming the worst fears of Alan Howarth, the former minister who defected to Labour, that the Tories are adopting an uncompromising Thatcherite agenda for the general election.

The Secretary of State for Social Security is expected to announce plans for stopping asylum seekers getting automatic access to welfare benefits as part of measures to cut alleged fraud costing pounds 6bn. He could emerge as one of the key right-wing speakers to lift the morale of the Tory rank- and-file at the party conference. There will be a Thatcherite edge to the announcements being prepared for the Blackpool conference.

Sir George Young, Secretary of State for Transport, will tomorrow announce that the privatisation of Railtrack is to be accelerated next year to produce an estimated pounds 1.5bn in time for the pre-election Budget. The privatisation of Nuclear Electric - stalled by Michael Heseltine, former President of the Board of Trade, because of the cost of decommissioning - is expected to be get the go-ahead for next year, to demonstrate that the Government has not lost its zeal for privatisation.

Downing Street has ordered each Cabinet minister with a platform speech to come up with two ideas for the conference. They have planned a string of announcements to restore the impression that the Government is back on track with a clear agenda, following the criticism by Alan Howarth that it was suffering from "a kind of listlessness".

On Thursday, Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, will announce the go- ahead for a voluntary identity card scheme, having resisted grassroots pressure to make it compulsory. He will also announce that courts will be expected to hand out longer sentences for burglary to persistent offenders. The police, social services and schools will be urged to co-operate to identify young offenders, with the onus on parents to enforce more discipline.

Virginia Bottomley, Secretary of State for National Heritage, will today attack Tony Blair's plans to end the six-year National Lottery contract for Camelot. She will announce lottery funds will be used to give school children free access to museums and art galleries.

A transatlantic free trade zone, linking North America and Europe, will be used by Malcolm Rifkind, the Foreign Secretary, to defuse the smouldering dispute in Tory ranks over monetary and economic union in Europe. Many Euro-sceptics will welcome the high priority he will attach to the free trade zone in his speech today. They see it as a balancing factor against the pressure to form a core group a single currency by Germany and France.

Brian Mawhinney, the party chairman, has transformed the campaign platform with three huge video screens, to give the conference a hi-tech look. He has also dropped the Purcell adaptation by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which was used at the 1992 general election, in favour of the theme tune from the film, An Officer and a Gentlemen.