MANCHESTER: British Finance Minister George Osborne, making a pitch to become Britain’s next prime minister, staked his claim to the political “center ground” on Monday by saying his party was the only option for workers.

Appealing to people who traditionally vote for the left-wing opposition, Osborne also dipped into Labour policy to broaden the appeal of Conservatives, long seen as the party of the rich, and cement their grip on power.

His speech to the party faithful at the annual conference mixed patriotism with the repeated refrain of “we are the builders,” a combination that fueled expectations that Osborne hopes to buttress his “centrist” credentials to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron, who has said he will step down by 2020.

Hailing the May election which ushered in the first majority Conservative government in 18 years, he told the conference in the city of Manchester: “The lesson of the last five years, and the victory that followed, is that the future favors the bold. So we’ve got to be the builders, the people with the new ideas.”

“We are now the party of work, the only true party of labor and my message to today’s Labour Party is this: you head back to the 1980s, we’re heading forward. You listen to the few, we will govern for the many.”

Osborne criticized Labour, under its new far-left leader Jeremy Corbyn, for abandoning its voters by “heading off to the fringes of the left” and said it was the Conservatives’ chance to prove it could represent their views.

But he also appealed to his party’s traditional voters, promising lower taxes and moving to allow local government more autonomy by allowing them to keep 26 billion pounds ($40 billion) worth of rates they collect from business.

BORROWING POLICY

By unveiling plans to spur infrastructure investment in Britain, he borrowed from one of Corbyn’s main policy pledges.

Osborne said the government would invest 5 billion pounds ($7.6 billion) by 2020 and pool local government pension pots into six wealth funds worth 25 billion pounds each to invest in vital infrastructure.

He also announced what party members hailed as a “coup,” the recruitment of former Labour cabinet minister Andrew Adonis, a policy chief for Tony Blair, to chair an independent commission to decide where best to put those funds.

Alongside incentives for grandparents to help with childcare, Osborne’s new policies appear designed to address criticism over his austerity drive, and strike at the heart of Labour’s attempts to rally support for its new far-left leader.

Party members said Osborne was stamping his authority on the party. “He’s putting himself very much at the center of everything that’s happened: our electoral success and the growing economy,” said Helen Harrison, a local councillor from the English town of Corby.

Matthew Ashton, a politics expert at Nottingham Trent University, said: “Osborne is presenting himself as Mr. Stability and the architect of economic growth.”