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The government's recapitalisation scheme has failed, David Cameron claimed today as he urged the government to stop "saving the world" and do more to get Britain's banks lending again.
The Conservative leader seized on an embarrassing slip of the tongue by Gordon Brown at prime minister's question time today and warned that British businesses were "going bust" because banks were withdrawing their lending facilities.
During fierce exchanges, the prime minister said: "We not only saved the world, err, saved the banks…"
Tories backbenchers erupted at the blunder.
"He's so busy talking about saving the world he now forgotten about the problems of saving the country," Cameron said.
The Tory leader said the purpose of the bank recapitalisation was not merely to protect banks but get them lending to people again".
"On that basis the recapitalisation has failed," Cameron said.
He urged the government to introduce a loan guarantee scheme to ensure greater lending to businesses.
Brown hit back insisting the purpose of recapitalisation was to shore up Britain's banks.
"I'm sorry to have to tell him about what the economy is about," Brown said.
The prime minister said there was already a loan guarantee scheme in place and the government would be doing more "in the next few days".
Labour MP Alan Simpson picked up on the theme, saying it was nice to have a prime minister who could save the world when the Tories had a leader who could "barely save face".
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