David Cameron says the Conservatives will work with the government to ensure stability as the economic crisis continues.The Conservative party leader said he had been in conversation with the prime minister and the head of the Financial Services Authority in the last 24 hours as a bipartisan effort to bail out the US economy collapsed in Congress. Speaking on the Today programme, Mr Cameron insisted he had acted to work with the government as a "responsible opposition" on issues like Trident, school reform and impending banking legislation. "There's a substantial point here: it may be necessary to take important steps to provide financial stability and people will want to see cross-party support," he said. Mr Cameron remained critical of the government, however, after his shadow chancellor George Osborne's scathing attacks on Gordon Brown in his speech to the Tory conference in Birmingham yesterday. "For the last ten years we've had a situation where there hasn't been anyone to call time on bank lending," he added. "You've got the Bank of England making the big decisions on interest rates, the FSA doing the regulation about financial products, but it's that piece in the middle: is the overall leverage of debt in the economy getting out of control?" Mr Cameron refused to be drawn on whether the Tories would nationalise a major British bank if it faced collapse. But he sought to emphasise the difference between an institutional failure and a systemic failure, saying both taxpayers and the system need protecting where necessary. "There are dangers for the parties of the left which is to use this as an opportunity to trash the whole system. There are dangers to parties of the right – if they took the view that regulation is always wrong that is a crazy thing to do," he said. "That is something the Conservative party does not believe. A free market system does need rules. What matters is, can we put those rules in place in a way that makes sure our system works well but provides greater stability?" Mr Cameron will address the Tory party conference tomorrow afternoon.
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