BRITISH PRIME minister Gordon Brown will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks in Berlin today in his continuing attempt to maximise international co-operation in response to the global economic crisis.
Their encounter follows Mr Brown’s meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris last night, as the British focus also turns towards the crisis summit of G20 nations Mr Brown will host in London in April.
The prime minister resumed his European travels after a bitter Commons clash with David Cameron over economic policy during which he described the Conservative leader as “completely isolated” and “out of touch with the rest of the world” in terms of the economic stimulus required to counter the recession.
Mr Cameron in turn accused Mr Brown of “running around like a headless chicken”, launching “bogus” initiatives and “building up debts for British children in an attempt to save his own skin”. In their first exchange of the new year, Mr Brown also insisted he has “no plans” to call an early general election, despite the suggestion by former home secretary Charles Clarke he should set a date in order “to rebut any allegation that Labour was trying to manipulate economic decisions for party advantage.”
When Tory backbencher Sir Michael Spicer asked mockingly if Mr Brown was “still on for an early election”, he replied: “I’ve said there’s no plan for that. I’ll say it again – there’s no plans.”
There was the continuing sense of battle lines being drawn for that inevitable contest, however, as Mr Cameron accused Mr Brown of “achieving nothing” while the prime minister branded the Tories the “do nothing party” which would “cut when we need to invest” and “leave people defenceless in the face of a global financial crisis.”
That crisis took the form of nearly 3,000 more job losses yesterday within hours of business secretary Lord Mandelson’s announcement of the details of a plan to guarantee up to £20 billion (€22 billion) of loans to small and medium-sized firms.
Lord Mandelson said the central element of the plan a £10 billion working capital scheme – represented a guarantee to the banks “to enable them to free up working capital to sustain existing loans and create new ones”.
Mr Brown also told MPs the guarantees on 50 per cent of £20 billion of short-term loans to businesses with a turnover of up to £500 million represented “real help” for business now – targeted, focused and funded. The Conservatives, however, claimed the government was offering “too little, too late” in what shadow chancellor George Osborne described as a “belated” version of the £50 billion Tory proposal.
Amid continuing speculation that Mr Cameron is tempted to recall former chancellor Kenneth Clarke to the shadow cabinet, Mr Brown claimed Mr Clarke had supported the government’s cut in VAT as the best way to stimulate consumer spending.
Mr Cameron rejected this as he described the resulting £12.5 billion increase in government debt as “an expensive failure”.