British prime minister Gordon Brown said today the global financial crisis had raised questions about the relationship between government and markets.
"I admire the market's ability to release the dynamism and enterprise of people and so this new Labour Government is pro-business and pro-markets and always will be," he wrote in the
Daily Telegraphnewspaper.
"But I also know that we do not live by markets alone. I have long understood that markets rely on values that they cannot generate themselves. Values as important as treating people fairly, acting responsibly, co-operating for the benefit of all."
Mr Brown has won international plaudits and a boost to his low standing among voters by injecting billions of pounds of taxpayers' cash into Britain's banking system to try to turn the tide of the financial crisis.
He has also called for an overhaul of regulation for the world's financial system to crack down on excessive risk-taking that he believes contributed to the credit crunch.
"The first financial crisis of the global age has now laid bare the weaknesses of unbridled free markets," Brown wrote.
"And what is happening around the world is raising quite fundamental questions for the new global age about the right relationships between markets and governments."
Mr Brown's comments are likely to be challenged by the opposition Conservatives, who say the government might use the crisis to increase state control over private enterprise.
Conservative leader David Cameron ended a truce with the government over the crisis yesterday, saying it showed Mr Brown's economic record was a failure.
Opposition politicians toned down their criticism of the government in recent weeks, believing they needed to support its efforts at a time of national emergency.
The respite has helped give Mr Brown a bounce in opinion polls, where Labour has cut the Conservatives' lead by half to around 10 points. Mr Brown must call an election by mid-2010.
Reuters