Nick Clegg is now taking questions.

Q: What do you think we need to do to improve trade relations with Brazil?

Clegg says he takes an interest in this, and has visited Brazil.

At the end of the 19th century, Britain had a strong presence in Latin America.

Partly because of the Commonwealth, partly because of the pull of Europe, partly because of linguistic differences, we let the relationship with Latin America wither on the vine, he says.

It is essential that future governments revive this, he says.

Q: The government is increasing the supply of childcare from the age of two. But what are parents supposed to do before this becomes available?

Clegg says the only logical answer is to close the gap between the point where parental leave ends and access to free childcare begins.

He would like to extend the entitlement to 15 hours of free childcare a week to the parents of all two-year-olds. At the moment only some families qualify.

In the long term, government needs to either extend parental leave, or extend free nursery care.

Q: What would you do to help small firms get access to finance?

Clegg says when Vince Cable first made the case for the British Business Bank, people were sceptical. We need to build on what has been achieved, he says.

One problem is the way risk is calculated. That militates against small firms, he says.

Clegg says he wants one million more women to be in work by 2020 than today.

We have started to crack the glass ceiling, but we are still a long way from smashing it.

In Britain today, too many women find their talents are wasted.

Too many women still face a heart-breaking choice between pursuing their career and caring for their family.

And too many businesses let the status quo persist year after year.

If we’re going to smash the glass ceiling then we – government and business – need to be ambitious.

So today, I want us to think big. By the end of the next parliament, I want a million more women to be in work than there are today.

And he urges businesses to play their part in this.

There is only so much government can do. If we are to stand a chance of smashing that glass ceiling we need British business to hold the hammer.

My challenge to you is to embrace change. Embrace shared parental leave. Embrace flexible working. Close the gender pay gap.

If we can unlock the talents of women, British business will boom. We will be more innovative, more entrepreneurial, more dynamic.

We need to think big. We need to do things differently.

But, as any successful entrepreneur knows, that is exactly what it takes to succeed.

Earlier this week YouGov’s Peter Kellner wrote an excellent analysis of Labour’s problem with business. He pointed out that, although voters largely agree with the party’s policy stance on business, they are suspicious of the party’s motives.

Business leaders, and bankers above all, are unpopular with millions of voters. A landslide victory beckons for any party that can persuade voters that it understands business and would curb its excesses, yet at the same time work with well-run companies to build a fairer and more prosperous Britain.

Miliband, together with Ed Balls, shadow chancellor, and Chuka Umunna, shadow business secretary, say that this describes Labour’s strategy exactly. The trouble is, voters don’t believe them. Like business leaders, they judge that Labour has moved to the Left, and that leading Labour politicians don’t really mean it when they say they are pro-business.

This helps to explain what David Cameron was up to today. In policy terms, he was on the defensive. He did not even mention the EU referendum in his speech - probably because, although the BCC is backing an early referendum, its total opposition to withdrawal from the EU means that Tory thinking makes it nervous - and he announced two policy ideas that both had a distinct Labourish feel to them. Yet - with his usual presentational flair - Cameron managed to trump this with rhetoric that was so gushingly pro-business that he must have wondered whether he was going over the top.

He set the tone right at the start. This was not so much as laying it on with a trowel, as dumping it on with a JCB.

When I see businesses on the move – expanding, succeeding – it quickens the pulse.

Yes, of course, I like what it all means – but I also deeply admire the people who make it happen.

As I go up and down the country – you may have seen me in the odd high vis jacket – I am inspired by what I see.

I see the ups and downs. I see the sacrifices it takes to succeed; the risks and rewards – the joy and the frustration.

Every time I lay a foundation stone, cut a ribbon, unveil a plaque, shake a hand, present an award, I see Britain coming back...

...and it fills my heart with pride to see what you have achieved these last five years.

See what I mean? I was not in the hall, so I did not see how this went down with the audience, but my guess is - rather well.

Anyway, here are the main points.

• Cameron accused Miliband of abandoning the “long-held” pro-business consensus in British politics. Audaciously, he made this point by revealing his hitherto-undisclosed admiration for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
  

I want to say something very frank.

I’ve sat in parliament from 2001 to 2015.

For the first 9 years of that I had opposite me on those green benches Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - and whatever else we disagreed on, we agreed that business is the generator of growth.

That long-held consensus in British politics is now over.

This was one of several passages in the speech where he expressed his strong admiration for business (see above). And, imitating Neil Kinnock, he also claimed a Labour government would be terrible for business. (See 12.31pm.)

• Cameron said a future Tory government would set up a Help to Grow fund to help 500 firms grow annually. Some £100m would be set aside in the budget to enable the British Business Bank to run a pilot, he said.

We need to think strategically about helping those small firms over the ‘valley of death’ funding gap so they can become medium firms - and the medium firms can become larger firms.

Cameron said the government would either use the government’s balance sheet to guarantee private loans, or co-invest public money alongside private money. He said he wanted to promote a British version of the German Mittelstand.

As we see in countries like Germany, with their Mittelstand of strong, well-financed, medium-sized businesses – this is where a lot of the growth and jobs comes from ...

I want Britain to have its own version of the German “Mittelstand” – a backbone of medium-sized firms which export, innovate, generate new jobs - and with our Help to Grow scheme, we will be there to back you.

This is an idea that sounds as it it could come straight out of a Labour manifesto. Many Labour thinkers are also deeply interested in the Mittelstand model.

• He said the next Conservative government would allow councils to keep at least two thirds of the revenue raised from business rates, up from 50% now. Labour would allow councils to keep 100% of the extra revenue raised from business rates generated by economic growth.

• He said the coalition was the first government in 40 years to cut the overall burden of regulation. This was equivalent to a “deregulation dividend” for business worth £2,000 per firm, he said.

• He welcomed the fact that the BCC is backing an EU referendum. This is what he said during the Q&A.
  

Here we are with a big business audience led by one of the most important business organisations in the country and they are not saying ‘don’t have a renegotiation, don’t have a referendum, just stick your head in the ground and hope this issue goes away’. They are saying it is quite right to have a strategy that gives Britain the best chance of staying in a reformed European union that works in our interest.

• He claimed that not having an EU referendum would increase the chances of Britain leaving the EU.
  

I think the danger of the alternative to what I’m suggesting is that Britain would just steadily drift towards the exits of the EU because the British public would not be taken along for this very, very important decision.

• He claimed that, despite the cap on public sector pay rises, workers were getting increases through progression pay (the increases that come automatically with increased years of service). This came during the Q&A when he was asked why he was telling firms to give their workers a pay rise when the government was not doing the same for public sector workers. He replied:
  

Within the public sector we have actually seen quite a lot of pay increases through progression, through people taking on new skills and talking on new tasks.

And we have seen that take place, for instance in the NHS, so that people have had pay rises, in many cases year on year.

And here’s the quote from Cameron where he parodied Neil Kinnock to attack Ed Miliband.

A former party leader, back in the day, gave a famous warning.

Let me update it – and change the party.

I warn you.

I warn you not to grow your business – because they’ll come after you.

I warn you not to take people on – because they’ll slap taxes on you

I warn you not to create wealth – because they’ll demonise you

I warn you not to aspire to aspire, to work, to turn a profit, to build something better – because in their vision, you are the enemy...

...private sector ‘bad’; public sector ‘good’.

Cameron is now taking questions.

Q: What will you do to support exports?

Cameron says the government will continue to back UKTI.

Cameron says, when he shadowed Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, at least they agreed that business needed to be supported.

But that consensus has been broken, he says.

Labour now wants to put up corporation tax.

• Cameron accuses Ed Miliband of being more anti-business than Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
  

And he parodies Neil Kinnock, saying “I warn you” etc about the implications of a Labour government for businesses.

Cameron says the next Conservative government would launch Help to Grow, a scheme to help small firms grow.

This would help them through the “valley of death” they face as they try to get established, he says.

• Cameron says Tories would launch a Help to Grow scheme for firms.

• Help to Grow would help 500 of the fastest growing firms a year, he says.

• The British Business Bank will get £100m to pilot the scheme in the budget, he says.

Cameron says he wants to create a UK equivalent of the German Mittelstand.

Cameron says the Conservatives would increase the amount of business rates that councils can keep.

• The Conservatives would allow councils to keep at least two thirds of revenue from business rates, up from a half, Cameron says.
  

David Cameron is speaking to the BCC now.

He says when he sees businesses succeeding, “it quickens the pulse”. He admires business figures, he says.

After his speech and Q&A, Ed Balls gave interviews to BBC News and Sky. Here are the key points he’s been making.

Here’s the full text of the Balls speech.

As I said earlier, his most powerful point probably came during the Q&A, when he explained why he thought David Cameron was losing influence in Europe.

• Balls suggested David Cameron could not achieve reform in Europe because fellow EU leaders did not think the Tories were serious anymore about Britain remaining a member. Stressing that Labour was committed to EU reform, Balls told the audience during the Q&A.
  

In the end what happens in Europe is people have to decide are you serious, or are you just playing politics. And if our European partners conclude we’re not actually in there for the long-term, trying to win those arguments and find that place for Britain, they will give up on us. And the lesson of European politics is, you never walk out of summits. You don’t go back to your parliament and slag off your European partners. You don’t let them think that in the end you’ve given up, and that you’re thinking about leaving, because if that happens, then you lose influence, and your lose your ability to win arguments. That is what is happening at the moment for Britain. I hear from business people, from the City and more widely all the time, we are being listened to less than we were before. And that is really dangerous.

• He rejected the call from John Longworth, the BCC director general, for an early referendum on EU membership. (See 9.40am.) He said that achieving EU reform could take time and that setting 2016 as an arbitrary deadline could be “hugely destablising.”

• He said it was “preposterous” for the Conservatives to suggest that he had questions to answer over what happened at HSBC when he was City minister.
  

The fact this is evidence of law breaking, of tax evasion and advice to people to avoid tax which first came to the attention of government in 2010. Now, George Osborne can try and divert attention away. The fact is, he was the chancellor when that information came to HMRC. And what did he do? And why did he and David Cameron, after that, make teh boss of HSBC a minister in the government. Now their accusation seems to me that, while the guy who was in charge of the whole bank, Mr Green, did not know about it in 2007, government ministers in the last Labour government somehow should have done, even though the evidence hadn’t been presented to government at all. It’s a preposterous claim and I think most people have seen it for what it is: an attempt to divert attention from a failure on behalf of the government.

• He suggested that people would think Cameron was out of touch because of the message in Cameron’s speech today.
  

I have to say, simply telling people they’ve never had it so good will only make working people feel that politicians are out of touch with the reality of their lives.

• He reaffirmed Labour’s belief that leaving the EU would be disastrous. (See 10.017am.)

• He said that complaints about Ed Miliband not attending the BCC conference were “trivial”. Miliband had attended this conference many times before, and Balls and Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, were here today, Balls said.

• He said Labour would make “a swift decision” in response to the report from the Davies Commission due after the general election recommending either Heathrow or Gatwick expansion.
  

After years of kicking this into the long grass, we will make a swift decision to expand airport capacity in the south-east, while taking into account environmental concerns, when the Davies report is complete.

You’ll notice that he did not actually commit Labour to accepting the report’s recommendation. To my ears, that line about “taking into account environmental concerns” sounded like wriggle room to allow Labour to go for a second runway at Gatwick if Davies recommends a third runway at Heathrow.

• He said it would be “deeply foolish” to say that the future of the union with Scotland is secure.

• He said he believed in markets and wealth creation.
  

I believe in the power of markets and incentives to create wealth and good jobs.

But I know too that markets don’t, by themselves, deliver the long-term investment in ideas, skills and infrastructure that modern economies need.

• He said that Simon Franks, the founder of Rebus Group and LoveFilm, would conduct a review for Labour into how to improve support for early stage and high growth businesses.
  

Balls is now taking questions.

Q: What is your backup strategy if you do not get EU reform?

Balls says reform will be hugely difficult. He won’t deny it is a big task.

Not joining the single currency was one of the most important decisions made by the UK in decades, he says.

In Europe people want to know if you are serious, or if you are just playing politics. There is a danger that people in the EU will decide Britain is not serious about reform. In the EU you should never walk out of summits, or go back to parliament to slag off your colleagues.

The government has implied that it has given up already.

Q: So the answer is that there is no backup policy?

No, the answer is that you don’t give up, says Balls.

If you demand reform, but won’t says what reform you want, people will think you are not serious, he says.

Q: [From the BBC’s Nick Robinson] What evidence is there that the government’s proposed EU referendum is creating uncertainty and putting jobs at risk? And what do you say to the BCC’s call for an early referendum?

Balls says we have had a slow recovery. Export performance has been poor. There is a real danger that businesses are delaying big decisions because of uncertainty about Britain’s future in the EU.

Setting an arbitrary timetable for a quick referendum would be a mistake, he says. It could be “hugely destabilising”.

He says Labour has set out more detail of the EU reforms it wants than any other party. But these changes will take time.

Q: What will you do to promote vocational education?

Balls says the English baccalaureate is narrowing education too much up to the age of 16. Children need more skills like teamwork.

Q: Why should we trust you after Labour’s record on the crash?

Balls says there was a global recession. Banking regulation was not tight enough beforehand, but the Labour government was under constant pressure to regulate less.

Ed Balls is now speaking at the BCC conference.

He says he hopes the politicians addressing the conference today will not offer partisanship and sloganeering, but constructive ideas about the country’s economic future.

Some people in the audience will be Conservative supporters. Some will be Labour supporters. There might even be a Lib Dem, he says.

But, in his experience, he says, most business figures are not interested in party politics; they are more interested in having a constructive relationship with government.

Labour is keeping up the pressure on the government over the HSBC tax avoidance revelations. Shabana Mahmood, the shadow Treasury minister, has written an open letter to George Osborne, the chancellor, with a series of “Who knew what when?” questions.

Here’s an extract.

Lord Stephen Green was chairman of HSBC 2006-2010 and was appointed a Conservative peer in September 2010 and then as trade minister by David Cameron in January 2011.

Given that, as the financial secretary said yesterday, the government was made aware of allegations of wrongdoing against HSBC in May 2010, eight months before Mr Green’s appointment to government, failure to ask probing questions would have to be seen as wilfully negligent. As chairman of the Bank, Mr Green would either have been aware of malpractice or, if not, surely questions would arise as to why not and his fitness for such a senior government post of trade minister.

John Longworth, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, was on the Today programme earlier. He has also given an interview to the Financial Times (subscription). Here are the key points he has been making.

• Longworth said that there definitely should be a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU - but that it should take place sooner than David Cameron is planning. Longworth said that waiting until 2017 to hold the referendum would prolong uncertainty, and that that would be bad for business. (See 8.58am.) But he also said that Labour’s policy of not guaranteeing a referendum would also generate uncertainty.
  

We’ve done business surveys over a long period of time. Our members say they want a referendum. There is, obviously, a debate about the referendum at the moment, it’s in the political agenda and creating uncertainty, so if we are going to have a referendum, we ought to do it quickly. If the Labour party are elected, of course, who do not want a referendum, they will be under huge pressure to have one, which will create uncertainty. We have to come to a conclusion on these things and move on.

Uncertainty is bad for business, and as long as uncertainty continues, that will not be a good thing. If parties are under pressure to have a referendum and it’s not clear whether they are going to give in or not, that in itself creates uncertainty.

• He said businesses want Britain to stay in the EU. This is what he told the BBC.
  

Our members overwhelmingly want to stay within the European Union trading bloc. They also do not want to join the eurozone, and they do not want any further integration. Those things have to be reconciled. We would be in a bad position if we were in Europe, but all the decisions were made for and by the eurozone.

But, in his speech to the BCC conference, he will also stress that businesses want to see the EU reformed.

Without true reform, business support for the European project is far from guaranteed. A new settlement for Britain in Europe is essential to achieving our economic ambitions - helping our businesses succeed here at home, and across the world.

• He told the BBC that businesses were starting to give their workers a pay rise.
  

As I go around the country and the economy picks up I see businesses giving pay rises. It helps spread the benefits of economic growth. I’m expecting to see increasing wage rises.

• He told the FT that he did not know what the government’s long-term economic plan was.
  

Do you know what it is? No? Exactly. Neither do I. They have done a lot of things, the current government, which have been pro-enterprise but we don’t really know what the plan is for the next parliament.

The Press Association has just snapped this.

The rights of 1,015 UK prisoners were breached when they were prevented from voting in elections, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.

I’ll post more details when I get them.

There is nothing particularly new about the ECHR declaring the UK’s ban on prisoners voting illegal. Several other judgments have said the same thing (that a blanket ban is illegal - the ECHR would happily accept a partial ban). The UK is supposed to comply with ECHR rulings, but the coalition government, like the previous Labour government, is doing all it can to delay taking action, and effectively the court and the UK government are at loggerheads over this.