Tories warn of IMF bailout under hung Parliament
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The Conservative party has warned the UK may be forced to go cap-in-hand to the International Monetary Fund if the general election results in a hung Parliament.
In a debate on BBC’s Daily Politics show earlier today, Tory Shadow Chancellor George Osborne reiterated the warnings of Shadow Business Secretary Ken Clarke that a hung Parliament leading to a Liberal Democrat/Labour coalition would create such instability in the markets that the UK would need an IMF bailout.
Osborne said: “If markets feel we do not have the confidence to deal with our debts we’ll have to call the IMF in, it’s a statement of fact. The only time we have ever had to call in the IMF was when we had a hung Parliament, when we had a very weak Government. We have to be aware of the consequences of political instability.”
LibDem Shadow Chancellor attacked Osborne’s forecast as “scaremongering of the worst kind” and said a council for financial stability would solve any future economic problems.
He said: “The Tories are losing the election and starting to panic. If we do have a major financial emergency in the future the public will expect all the parties to work together, all of us.”
Chancellor Alistair Darling labelled the Tories warning as “pretty desperate stuff” and said the Conservative tax cut promises would hurt the markets more than a hung Parliament.
He said: “The Tories have made all these promises, you’ve thrown caution to the wind and that’s what destabilises markets. Ken Clarke ought to know better, this is a ridiculous statement to make.”
Osborne retorted by saying Clarke was a “damn sight more successful Chancellor” than Darling.
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Readers' comments (3)
Richard Brydon | 21 Apr 2010 5:54 pm
Typical scaremongering by a previously discredited regime.Many countries have governments that are made up of different factions which seem to work satisfactorily.
I agree that if the next government is unable to reduce the national debt as quickly as our creditors would like, then these creditors may very well have a confidence problem in us, but this will not be because we have a hung parliament.
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Incompetent Regulators Award Team | 21 Apr 2010 8:09 pm
Most people are so p*ssed of with politicians I can understand why anything anyone of them says is trashed. But in reality what the Tories are saying is true in the short term e.g. the early days and critical preiod of the recovery. But lets not harp back to previous discredited governments as otherwsie hos far do we go e.g. Gladstone etc. It's 13 years since the Tories have been in and what we have hasn't worked and Lib Dems are a totally unkown whereby most people don't really know what their policies are! There's only one vote for me it's the best of the worst I'm afraid.
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Calamity James | 22 Apr 2010 1:39 pm
George Osborne is what can only be describe as a buffoon, its like allowing richard hammond to road test your rocket car....Imangine if this cretain was on a debate with Vince Cable or Darling again....it would put a death nell on tory chances.
......dear BBC i have an idea for a further chancellors debate.......
If it came to who do i trust with ecomomy as a chancellor it would be vince first, alisdair second and down in 68th place narrowly beaten but one of the chuckle brothers (barry chuckle!) would be George Osborne.
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