Bank's King feared Cameron unprepared for cuts - Wiki

By Michel Rose

LONDON | Wed Dec 1, 2010 2:12am GMT

(Reuters) - Further details of Bank of England Governor Mervyn King's criticism of Prime Minister David Cameron and Chnacellor George Osborne as "unprepared" emerged from secret U.S. diplomatic cables, the Guardian said on Wednesday.

King, in a February meeting with the U.S. ambassador, said the then-opposition Conservative party leaders "had not fully grasped the pressures they will face from different groups when attempting to cut spending" and suggested their understanding demonstrated a "lack of depth."

The newspaper is one of a number of publications worldwide to have had early access to some 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.

A copy of the U.S. cable showed that King, in several meetings with the Conservative leaders before their election in May, had pressed for details about how they planned to tackle Britain's debt, but "received generalities in return."

Bank of England policymaker Adam Posen criticised King last month, saying he had strayed into politics by endorsing the Conservative-led coalition's austerity plan shortly after the May election.

According to the ambassador's cable, as published by the paper, King thought Cameron and Osborne had a tendency to think about issues only in terms of politics and how they might affect Conservative electability.

In another cable, coming after the October 2008 Conservative conference, a Cameron insider told U.S. diplomats that Osborne had been stopped from making an emergency statement at the height of the financial crisis.

"Private party polling indicated that the public feel Osborne lacks the necessary 'gravitas'," the insider told U.S. officials in a private meeting, according to the Guardian.

"Somewhat unfairly, party officials thought, polling indicated that Osborne was seen as lightweight and inexperienced, in part due to his high-pitched vocal delivery."

In an interview with the BBC broadcast on Tuesday night, U.S. Ambassador Louis Susman said: "It is the duty of a diplomat to report those conversations."

"Gossip is not gossip if it's conversations. Gossip is speculation, but there is no speculation."

The Guardian also reported that Susman had tried to persuade the then-Labour chancellor Alastair Darling to waive the VAT on planned construction of a new U.S. embassy by the Thames river.

Darling refused, "citing the recession, tight budget and elections."