Vince Cable has accused the Tories of “playing fast and loose” with the economy as they try to frighten voters into electing a Conservative government.
The Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor said David Cameron and George Osborne were being irresponsible with their warnings about the risk to sterling in the event of a hung parliament.
In his keynote speech to the Lib Dems’ spring conference in Birmingham Vince said: “We must and will be fiscally responsible. Unlike the Tories and their cronies who want to create a financial panic and run on sterling to frighten people into voting for them on May 6.
“Playing fast and loose with the financial stability of this country for political gain – destabilising the markets – is dangerous, irresponsible and wrong.
“It is also irresponsible to engage in a phoney war over cuts weeks before an election that will affect the lives of millions of people.
He lashed out at Gordon Brown for ignoring Lib Dem warnings about household debt and house prices ahead of the financial crisis.
And he likened the Prime Minister to Ashley Cole – the Chelsea footballer whose singer wife Cheryl has recently left him – in pleading for “another chance”.
“The Government’s economic record speaks for itself: remember the phrases ‘no more boom and bust’, ‘prudence’, ‘Golden Rules’ – all abandoned,” he said.
“And standing amid the wreckage of the economy Gordon Brown sounds more and more like Mr Ashley Cole saying – give me another chance.”
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