In his first party conference speech since becoming Prime Minster, David Cameron has said his government will help build "a nation of doers and go-getters".

Amid the row over child benefit and spending cuts, he has called on Britons "to pull together... your country needs you", reminiscent of the British World War I slogan.

He warned that spending cuts will "not be easy" and that jobs will be lost following the government's long-awaited spending review on 20 October, but there was "no other responsible way" and in time "the rewards will be felt by everyone in our country".

He thanked voters for the opportunity to lead the country and said the party was back governing "in the national interest" after 13 years "in the wilderness".

At the party conference, he also said: "You have given us a chance and we will work flat out to prove worthy of that chance."

He gave his support to wealth creators and pledged protection for the sick, vulnerable, and elderly.

Ahead of the conference, Mr Cameron apologised for not including the plan to scrap child benefit in 2013 from higher-rate tax payers in his election manifesto.

In a recent interview, David Cameron said he knew cutting the benefit for earners making more than £44,000 would not make him popular - however it was the "right thing to do".

During the speech in Birmingham, the prime Minister accused Labour of having "mortgaged Britain to the hilt" and said under their plans to halve the deficit in four years - debt interest payments would continue to grow and cuts would be bigger.

He called for a debate on what fairness means in an age of austerity, saying it should not just be about how much money is spent of welfare.

He said: "You can't measure fairness just by how much money we spend on welfare - as though the poor are products with a price tag; the more we spend on them the more we value them.

"Fairness means supporting people out of poverty, not trapping them in dependency.

"So we will make a bold choice. For too long, we have measured success in tackling poverty by the size of the cheque we give people. We say: let's measure our success by the chance we give."

Paying tribute to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg for entering a coalition agreement, he said the Lib Dems were "proper partners" and Conservative members could be "proud of what we've done."

He also praised Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith's plans to replace existing out-of-work benefits with a single, universal payment that rewards work.

Paying tribute to troops in Afghanistan, he said he would take "no risks with British security" in the spending review, stressing his commitment to renewing the Trident nuclear missile system.

He got loud applause after listing the coalition's achievements and finishing: "Look at what we've done in five months, just imagine what we can do in five years."

(BMcN/GK)