Brown slams use of 'crude' personal attacks
Updated on 02 July 2009
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has hit out at the use of "crude" personal attacks after Tory leader David Cameron accused him of "deceit".
Mr Brown and Mr Cameron were involved in a stormy exchange over public spending during Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons on Wednesday.
The Conservative's boss later suggested Mr Brown lacked the leadership qualities to tell voters the truth about the UK's economic position and that he is unable to have an "honest conversation" about the inevitability of cuts - which Mr Cameron said should start now.
But speaking during his train tour of the north of England, Mr Brown rejected the dishonesty accusation and said politicians should "think twice" before making personal remarks.
He said: "I think if someone is called dishonest, there is an assumption that there is some wilful desire to mislead and there is some corruption involved, and I don't think that is the case.
"There is a crudity developed in the language that people use in politics that people are now accepting as almost everyday language, to accuse people of this or that. I think people have to think twice before they make accusations. I do not make personal attacks on people. I have tried to avoid doing that during my political career."
He added: "But equally, I understand that the language of politics can sometimes descend into people making quite crude accusations."
In Harrogate, Mr Cameron told the Local Government Association conference: "We've got to look the British public in the eye and have an honest conversation about the financial situation. And there's no point pretending, as our Prime Minister does, that it's just not there."
He added: "I do think that one of the ways to avoid very deep cuts in the future is to make a start now. I do think it is wrong to be going into 2010 with actually quite aggressive spending increases for 2010 when we should be starting to make savings now."
Mr Cameron said that there is "no doubt" that the winner of the upcoming General Election will be faced with the most difficult public finances of any British Prime Minister in 40 years.
Although there were some "brighter signs", banks were still not lending, unemployment was rising and insolvencies were "going through the roof", he said.
The Tory leader told delegates: "You're entitled to ... some political leadership. That means a straightforward, candid assessment of the situation we face. It is not leadership to deny that our public finances are in a crisis. It is not leadership to say that spending on public services is going to rise when it isn't.
"It is not leadership to put off a spending review by saying there are so many uncertainties to take into account when the only certainly is that our country is living way beyond its means, is saddled with a massive debt crisis and desperately needs a strategy to get us out of the hole we're in.
"What Britain needs is leadership that's clear about the depth of the problems we face and honest about the fact that public spending needs to be reduced. I passionately believe our country will come through this. But only if - and I mean only if - we tell people the truth and what is happening."
Speaking during a visit to Sherburn, North Yorkshire, Mr Brown insisted that maintaining spending is vital in order to stimulate the growth that can save jobs and bring Britain out of the recession.
"We will invest our way through this downturn, we are not going to cut our way through it," he said, adding: "The choice for our country is do you invest your way out of a recession like this - as America is doing, as many other countries are doing - or do you just cut your public services and your public investment now?
"And that really is the choice between the parties at the moment."
Mr Brown broke off from his tour to pay an impromptu visit to a fishmonger's in Leeds after being told how badly it had been hit by the recession during a radio phone-in by the stallholder's wife Michelle Hayes.
The PM then strode into the city's Kirkgate Market to see the family firm Thomas Hayes & Sons for himself.
Afterwards, Ms Hayes' surprised husband Cliff Hocken said: "It was very nice to see - the fact that he's a human at the end of the day and he's tried to understand the problems that are arising."
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