British opposition leader David Cameron ended a truce with the government over the credit crunch today by saying the financial crisis showed Prime Minister Gordon Brown's economic record was an utter failure.
The Conservative leader said the economic assumptions that Mr Brown's Labour government had made over the last decade now lay in ruins.
"The complete and utter failure of their economic record has never been more clear to see," Mr Cameron told a business audience in London. "This crisis has highlighted just how mistaken Labour's economic policy has been."
Mr Cameron said his Conservatives had backed Mr Brown's plans to recapitalise banks with billions of pounds of taxpayers' money but that did not mean they would support the government blindly.
"Some people think that this decision - to support recapitalisation - means that we somehow now subscribe to the government's entire economic policy and doctrine," he said. "Let me make it crystal clear - we do not."
The Conservatives accuse the prime minister of letting borrowing get out of hand during his decade as finance minister, before he took over as leader of the country last year.
They toned down their criticism of the government in recent weeks, believing they needed to support the government's efforts at a time of national emergency.
But the respite has helped give Mr Brown a bounce in the opinion polls, where Labour has cut the Conservatives' lead by half to around 10 points.
Mr Brown must call the next general election by mid-2010.
Reuters