As the Tories continue to re-brand, David Willetts has said that the "war on lone parents is over".

The shadow work and pensions secretary told Bournemouth delegates that his approach would be to support single parents in "doing the responsible thing".

Willetts made a clean break from speeches heard at previous Tory conferences, when he said the party was changing, and would offer support to the 1.8 million one parent families in the UK.

While the evidence showed that it was better for children to be brought up by two parents in a stable marriage, single parents were acting responsibly, Willetts argued.