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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Cameron hits out over bank crisis | Cameron hits out over bank crisis |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| The government is to blame for the crisis at Northern Rock, Conservative leader David Cameron has said. | The government is to blame for the crisis at Northern Rock, Conservative leader David Cameron has said. |
| Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he accuses Gordon Brown of presiding over a huge expansion of public and private debt. | |
| The Tories are also calling for the government to say what it knew about the bank's problems before it sought help from the Bank of England. | |
| Meanwhile worried customers are still trying to take money out of the bank. | |
| Mr Cameron said the lines of savers queuing to withdraw their savings from the bank "serve to remind us just how fragile the stability of the economy can be". | |
| "The credit crunch, previously restricted to the City, has burst onto the high streets," he said. | "The credit crunch, previously restricted to the City, has burst onto the high streets," he said. |
| Boosting markets | |
| "Under Labour our economic growth has been built on a mountain of debt. | "Under Labour our economic growth has been built on a mountain of debt. |
| "For all its past talk of prudence, the government has been on a spending and borrowing spree of gigantic proportions." | "For all its past talk of prudence, the government has been on a spending and borrowing spree of gigantic proportions." |
| The government had to learn that "an economy built on debt puts economic stability at risk", Mr Cameron added. | The government had to learn that "an economy built on debt puts economic stability at risk", Mr Cameron added. |
| He also called for changes to fiscal rules, including greater transparency between lenders about borrowers' credit histories. | |
| Customers have been withdrawing money | |
| "It is not enough for the chancellor simply to talk about common sense in banking," he said. | "It is not enough for the chancellor simply to talk about common sense in banking," he said. |
| The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, also said to end speculation and rumour the government had to say what it knew about Northern Rock's problems before it sought help from the Bank of England. | |
| "What we're trying to do here is stop people following the latest story in the newspapers or the latest rumour and actually trust the advice that they're being given. | |
| "There is a genuine question about the handling of the economy over the last 10 years... and whether we have created an economy built on debt, on government debt and on consumer debt. And whether that has left us more exposed to economic instability and to the global financial turbulence." | |
| Flood of regulation | |
| But not everyone in the party agrees. Ken Clarke, the last Conservative chancellor, said the problems at the bank shouldn't lead to tough new restrictions on borrowing. | |
| "I think the development of ready access to credit is one of the best ways of boosting a market," he told , told BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House. | |
| "So I do hope the reaction to the recent nonsense is not that we need a great flood of new regulation, that everybody gets hair-shirted again" | |
| Chancellor Alistair Darling and City watchdog the Financial Services Authority moved to reassure customers that the bank was still functioning. |