Cameron says family support good for economy

By Tim Castle

GATESHEAD (Reuters) - Conservative Leader David Cameron pledged extra help for young families on Saturday in a bid to improve his party's appeal to new mothers and fathers.

Cameron, seeking to build support ahead of local elections in May, was given a welcome boost when the latest ICM poll for Sunday's News of the World showed the Conservatives with a commanding nine-point lead over Labour.

In a post-budget snapshot of the voters' mood, the ICM poll put the Conservatives on 40 percent, Labour on 31 percent and the Liberal Democrats on 20 percent.

In his speech to activists at the party's spring conference in Gateshead, Cameron argued that preventing family breakdown and its attendant social costs would also have benefits for the wider economy.

"If we Conservatives are serious when we say we want a smaller state and lower taxes, we have to have a serious plan for making it happen," he said.

"The truth is this -- you won't end up with sustainably lower taxes unless you cut the real costs of government.

"And the real costs of government are the social problems that cause public spending, and the state, to grow and grow."

Labour accused Cameron of posturing on family policies, saying he had in the past damned the government's introduction of parental leave as "political correctness."