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Gordon Brown issued a warning to voters today not to give power to the Conservative party that would place economic recovery at risk due to an ideological "hatred" of the state.
Addressing a conference of centre-left European leaders, he attacked the response of the "well-financed right wing" to the financial crisis.
Brown said they used "legitimate concerns about deficits to scare people into accepting a bleak and austere" future.
The prime minister called for a "global constitution" on the regulation of financial markets and said he hope for agreement on a range of regulation issues at G8 and G20 meetings in coming months.
Brown said a global solution was required to transform financial services and that now was not the time to put a fragile economic recovery at risk by withdrawing fiscal support.
"We are doing what we can in Britain to give our banks a sound capital base from which to move forward," Brown told the Policy Network conference.
"But we need a global solution: common rules for capital and liquidity, common standards for supervision, common rules for bonuses and a shared way of assessing the contribution banks should make to society, free of the unfair and disproportionate use of regulatory and tax havens which penalise countries doing the right things."
Brown accused the Conservatives of "narrow nationalism", saying they would leave the UK facing "isolation and irrelevance" in Europe.
He pledged to keep Britain "in Europe's mainstream" if re-elected this year, criticising the more eurosceptic stance of a Conservative opposition expected to win power come May.
On Saturday Brown is to outline the four main themes he hopes will help Labour to a fourth term in government.
At a speech in Coventry, the prime minister will emphasise his party's focus is on economic recovery, protecting frontline services, "standing up for the many" and delivering on jobs and new industries.
Article Comments
The opinion poll gap is narrowing and whilst the Conservatives are the favourites to be the largest party, Labour has everything to play for.
http://paulwbmarsden.blogspot.com/2010/02/election-pre-campaign-hots-up.html
Paul Marsden
19th Feb 2010 at 10:40 pm
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