The Chancellor, George Osborne has announced that the welfare budget will be cut by a further £10bn. Speaking at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, Mr Osborne delivered a speech in which he announced further benefits cuts of £10bn, on top of the £18bn announced two years ago. One idea he suggested was limiting the number of children in a family that should be supported on benefits.

But the Chancellor ruled out a 'Mansion Tax' for people with properties worth more than £2m. The Liberal Democrats had been advocating the tax, bus Osborne dismissed the notion, saying, "It's not a mansion tax, it's a home tax and this party of property ownership will have no truck with it." Osborne did acknowledge that the rich needed to contribute more to reducing the deficit, saying that "those with the most should contribute the most", though he did not outline plans for how this would happen.

Much of the speech was briefed in advance, but Osborne did surprise conservatives in attendance with radical reforms to employment law, in which employers are offered shares in the company they work for in return for losing certain worker's rights, such as redundancy packages.

Mr Osborne said it was a 'sink or swim' moment for the western economies, and that the further cuts to public spending would pull Britain out of recession and see the country prosper in the future.

The Chancellor also signalled further investment for scientific research at English universities, announcing an extra £200m will be made available to encourage research.

Written and presented by Alfred Joyner