Cameron will deliver the message in his closing speech to the ruling Conservative Party’s annual conference — an event that has been overshadowed by the financial crisis in the European Union, its main trading partner.

Seeking to temper his customary optimism with a dose of realism, Cameron will acknowledge that people are anxious about higher prices and rising unemployment as Britain struggles to recover from the financial crisis of 2008-09.

“People want to know why the good times are so long coming,” Cameron will say, according to advance excerpts from his speech.

“The answer is straightforward but uncomfortable. This was no normal recession; we’re in a debt crisis.”

“The only way out of a debt crisis is to deal with your debts ... It means governments — all over the world — cutting spending and living within their means.”

Support for Cameron’s Conservatives has held up despite the economic problems, rioting in English cities this summer and a newspaper phone hacking scandal that raised questions about the prime minister’s judgment.

However, that strength is in part a reflection of the weakness of the other two main parties.

Cameron made dealing with Britain’s budget deficit of more than 10 percent of national output his priority when he took power in May 2010 at the head of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.

Many former supporters of the left-leaning Lib Dems have not forgiven the party for compromises made after going into government, notably a decision to drop their opposition to higher tuition fees for university students.
 

The government has cut spending by a fifth across many departments in order to erase the structural deficit by 2015, when the next election is due. More than 300,000 public sector jobs will be lost because of the spending cuts.

Critics say the coalition risks stifling an economy that is struggling to grow.

However, the Conservatives still outperform main opposition Labour for economic management, with Labour carrying the can for allowing the deficit to balloon.

Finance minister George Osborne floated a plan on Monday to ease the flow of funding to small businesses which are struggling to get funds.

The Bank of England may also decide on Thursday to create more money electronically, so-called quantitative easing, to try to get the economy moving again.

However, Osborne said this week that the biggest boost to the British economy would be a resolution of the long-running financial crisis in Greece, part of the euro single currency zone from which EU member Britain stands apart.

Business lobby the CBI has called on the government to work with private companies to boost spending on infrastructure projects to help fire up the economy.

More retailers will go bust in the coming months, the British Retail Consortium told Reuters on Tuesday, warning of another 18 months of gloom on the high street.

Opposition Labour, which ruled for 13 years until 2010, is regrouping under new leader Ed Miliband, whose conference speech last week gained poor reviews in the media and was portrayed as a lurch to the left.

However, the Conservatives know their hopes of winning an outright majority in 2015 depend on the economy coming right in time.

“The blame allocation on the economy is going to be the big thing,” Conservative backbench MP David Davis said at a fringe event organized by Reuters and pollsters Ipsos-MORI.