Cameron tactics slammed by minister

2:35pm Monday 18th August 2008

A senior Government minister has launched a highly personal attack on Tory leader David Cameron, accusing him of using "photo opportunities and warm words" to distract from his "risky and destructive ideological agenda".

Treasury Chief Secretary Yvette Cooper - a close ally of Gordon Brown - said "Cameronomics" was a mixture of contradictory policies and tax and spending plans that did not add up.

Writing in The Guardian, she said: "The Conservative leader hopes to distract us with frisbees, floral shorts, and photo ops.

"But a serious look at his policies reveals an approach which is at best confused and at worst would be deeply damaging for our economy.

"Cameronomics is emerging, in which photo ops, warm words and conflicting promises attempt to distract from a risky and destructive ideological agenda."

She claimed that Mr Cameron had a tendency to duck difficult questions, sending out different messages to different audiences.

"He has tried to confine policies to vague populist promises, from tax cuts to more prisons, to solving family breakdown, without getting drawn on delivery. But dig deeper and what you see is not quite what you get," she said.

On the economy, she said that Mr Cameron was promising to cut taxes, increase spending and reduce borrowing all at the same time.

"Faced with calls to make the sums stack up, Mr Cameron reverts to slogans - 'sharing the proceeds of growth,' or 'living within our means'. When pressed, he concedes this means sticking with Labour's spending plans."

Her article appeared to mark the start of a Government fightback after a summer dominated by speculation over whether Mr Brown will be ousted from No 10 in the wake of a series of devastating electoral setbacks culminating in the loss of the Glasgow East by-election.