King attacked ‘lightweight’ Tories
By Ian Dunt
The governor of the Bank of England considered the Tory leadership team to be lightweight on economic policy, the latest batch of Wikileaks releases show.
The revelations came as Nick Clegg inisisted to Hillary Clinton that the cotinued publication of the documents would not endanger the “uniquely strong relationship” between the two countries.
According to US ambassador Louis Susman, Mervyn King said he had “great concerns” about David Cameron and George Osborne’s “lack of experience”, as late as February of this year.
The news is surprising, given that many analysts had thought Mr King was very close to the Tories in opposition after he repeatedly backed calls for a robust deficit reduction strategy.
“He [Mr King] opined that party leader David Cameron and shadow chancellor George Osborne have not fully grasped the pressures they will face from different groups when attempting to cut spending,” Mr Susman is reported to have said.
The governor had received “only generalities” when he asked the Tory team how they planned to reduce the deficit.
Tory leaders “had a tendency to think about issues only in terms of politics, and how they might affect Tory electorability”, Mr King told Mr Susman.
There were calls for Mr King to resign today from former Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member David Blanchflower.
“The governor of the Bank of England should not be in the business of shaping one political party’s macro-economic policy,” he wrote in the Guardian.
“Mervyn King should consider his position. It’s time for a change at the top at the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street.”
Shadow Cabinet minister Jim Murphy also voiced concern, saying Mr King “has to take great care”.
The leaked cables also reveal that Mr Cameron took on the emergency speech he made at the 2008 Tory conference, when the financial crisis hit, because there were concerns about Mr Osborne’s perceived lack of gravitas – a consequence of his “high pitched vocal delivery”.
Other documents show that two Lib Dem strategists cancelled plans to brand Mr Cameron out of touch with “real life” following the death of his son Ivan. The two strategists now work in Downing Street.
Meanwhile, defence secretary Liam Fox told US officials that he would be tougher with Pakistan than his predecessor because the Tories do not have any substantial support among British Pakistanis and therefore had less to lose electorally.
The leaked cables also suggest that UK officials assured their American counterparts that the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war would be limited so that it did not damage the US’ reputation.
A separate document revealed that Sir John Chilcot apparently felt “hampered” when he was restricted from accessing documents related to former attorney general Lord Goldsmith.
The revelations are likely to further compromise the inquiry, and substantiate the arguments of those who say that it does not have the teeth to do its job effectively.
Deputy prime minister Mr Clegg met US secretary of state Hillary Clinton today at an Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) summit in Kazakhstan.
“I made clear to secretary Clinton that recent Wikileaks disclosures would not affect our uniquely strong relationship. UK-US co-operation will continue with the same depth and closeness as before,” Mr Clegg said.
“I also took the opportunity to raise the case of Shaker Aamer, the last remaining British resident detained in Guantanamo Bay. I stressed the importance to the UK of early movement on his case.”
