Cameron commits a Conservative Government to start making cuts later this year - even if the economy contracts again

David Cameron is at the World Economic Forum in Davos and gave an interview to tonight's Channel Four News, as Faisal Islam blogs:

David Cameron told Channel 4 News today that the Conservatives would start cutting the deficit this year, even if Britain relapses into recession in this quarter. “We’re saying we must make a start in 2010,” he told me in Davos. In one of his first interviews following this week’s poor economic numbers he did concede that a renewed economic contraction meant “the scale of what you might want to do needs to be worked out in conjunction with the Bank of England”.

Warning of “Greek-style interest rates”, Cameron said that cutting the debt would be the Conservatives “number 1 priority”. Of his fiscal austerity message, he said: “I accept these are not traditional ways of winning a general election, but we are being truthful with the british people and I think they respect that.”

He confirmed that the Conservatives back President Obama’s broad plans on banks, but denied rumours that he’s sounding out the Barclays and HSBC chiefs for the non-vacant Bank of England governorship.

His remarks came as news emerged today that the UK is no longer classified as being among the most stable and low-risk banking systems in the world, according to credit rating agency Standard & Poor's

Jonathan Isaby