Wikileaks focus on senior Tories

Mr King is reported to have had reservations about the top Tory team prior to the election

Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne are in the spotlight in the latest batch of leaked US diplomatic cables.

The cables, obtained by whistleblowing website Wikileaks, reveal Bank of England governor Mervyn King had doubts about the pair ahead of May’s election.

Mr King feared they lacked economic experience and were too “political”.

Downing Street has not commented on the claims, which are reported by the Guardian.

The newspaper said Mr King made his comments about the experience of senior Conservative figures to US ambassador Louis Susman at a meeting in February – just months before the general election.

It said Mr Susman wrote to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a classified dispatch, soon after reporting that Mr King had “great concerns about the Conservative leaders’ lack of experience in reducing deficits”.

“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.

When Mr King asked for details about how the two men planned to tackle the UK’s huge budget deficit before the general election, Mr Susman reported that the governor told him that he had received “only generalities in return”.

The Conservative leaders, Mr King is reported to have told Mr Susman, “had a tendency to think about issues only in terms of politics, and how they might affect Tory electorability”. He is also said to have considered the Tory leadership lacking in “depth”, telling Mr Susman that they “seemed resistant to reaching out beyond their small inner circle”.

The leaked cables also say the US embassy officials were told:

David Cameron, rather than George Osborne, made an emergency speech on the economic crisis to the 2008 Tory conference partly because internal Tory polling suggested the latter lacked gravitas with the public due to his “high pitched vocal delivery”Defence Secretary Liam Fox told the Americans the Conservatives would be tougher on Pakistan because they were “less dependent” than the Labour Party on votes from the British-Pakistani communityTwo Lib Dem strategists, who now work in Downing Street, planned to brand David Cameron “out of touch with real life” ahead of the general election but the plan was dropped after the death of Mr Cameron’s eldest son, Ivan, which “eliminated these vulnerabilities”

The leaks also quote a senior Tory who said that Gordon Brown’s warning at the 2008 Labour conference that it was “no time for a novice” had “gained significant traction with voters”.

“Internal Tory spot polling had found, worryingly for the Conservatives, that contrary to the general consensus, if an election were held the next day, Gordon Brown would be re-elected, albeit with a vastly reduced majority,” according to an account of the 2008 Tory conference by Richard LeBaron, deputy head of mission at the US embassy.

The leaks also reveal that Ambassador Susman tried to persuade then chancellor Alistair Darling to waive VAT on the construction of the new £475m US Embassy in Battersea, South London, but the request was refused by the then chancellor “citing the recession, tight budget and elections”.

There is also analysis of relations between David Cameron and Nick Clegg ahead of the general election in a March 2009 note by Greg Berry, political counsellor at the US embassy.

Mr Berry quotes Norman Lamb, then Lib Dem health spokesman and now Mr Clegg’s chief parliamentary aide, who says Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron “do not get along personally”.

“Lamb said Clegg thinks Cameron is dismissive of him and Clegg refused an ‘aggressive’ invitation to dine at Cameron’s house,” says the document.

Mervyn King has been extremely supportive of the government’s deficit reduction strategy since it took office in May, a policy that has also been backed by leading business groups such as the CBI and international organisations like the IMF.

A Bank spokeswoman told the Guardian that the governor has a “very effective working relationship” with the prime minister and the chancellor.

Foreign Secretary William Hague briefed the Cabinet on Monday about the leaked cables, which have been condemned by London and Washington.

Earlier disclosures contained in the cables included criticism of British military operations in Afghanistan and claims the UK government promised to limit the scope of the Iraq war inquiry to protect US interests.

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