Darling warns of Tory "nonsense"
Sunday, 23 Sep 2007 17:43
Alistair Darling's speech to the Labour conference was his first as chancellor
Chancellor Alistair Darling says the Conservatives are a "threat" to Britain's economic prosperity.
Addressing his party's annual conference in Bournemouth for the first time as chancellor, Mr Darling said the Conservatives were the party of "opportunism" and had an "inconsistent and incoherent approach" to managing Britain's economy.
He won applause from conference delegates for his pledge to continue regulating the mortgage market and accused David Cameron's party of pledging tax cuts one week and spending more the next.
Mr Darling described the Conservatives' mortgage policy as "dangerous nonsense" before adding: "That's the way to instability, high interest rates, high mortgage rates, back to the Tory past."
The chancellor admitted that there were "lessons to be learned" from last week's Northern Rock crisis, which saw the government forced to underwrite deposits to stop a run on the bank.
"It's in all our interests to learn from what's happened and we are ready to take the lead and take whatever action is needed. And we will continue to take that action on the basis of the long-term interests of our people and our country," he said.
Despite the serious nature of the speech Mr Darling found room to reveal a little of his sense of humour, saying the banking scare had threatened to turn his trademark eyebrows grey.