Cameron sets off to work

David Cameron today began his first day as Prime Minister after Gordon Brown ended 13 years of Labour rule to pave the way for a Tory-Lib-Dems coalition.

After five days of uncertainty, Mr Brown last night finally accepted he was unable to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats and tendered his resignation to the Queen.

At 8.42pm after visiting Buckingham Palace to accept an invitation to form a new government, Mr Cameron stood outside No 10 with pregnant wife Samantha and set out how a “proper and full coalition” will provide the “strong and stable” leadership the country needs.

In his first speech as Prime Minister Mr Cameron paid tribute to Gordon Brown for his “long record of dedicated public service” and said that after more than a decade of Labour rule, Britain was “more open at home and more compassionate abroad”.

He added: “We have some deep and pressing problems — a huge deficit, deep social problems, a political system in need of reform.

“For those reasons, I aim to form a proper and full coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal-Democrats. I believe that is the right way to provide this country with the strong, the stable, the good and decent government that I think we need so badly.

“Nick Clegg and I are both political leaders who want to put aside party differences and work hard for the common good and for the national interest.

“I came into politics because I love this country, I think its best days still lie ahead and I believe deeply in public service, and I think the service our country needs right now is to face up to our really big challenges, to confront our problems, to take difficult decisions, to lead people through those difficult decisions so that together we can reach better times ahead.”

The Conservative leader made major concessions to Westminster’s third party in order to secure the support of its 57 MPs, including handing over seats at the Cabinet table.

The two teams spent five days locked in intense negotiations as they agreed a line by line pact.