Cameron's spokesman refuses to condemn King comments

The prime minister's official spokesman today refused to condemn the comments made by Mervyn King to the US ambassador Louis Susman when asked repeatedly to confirm that David Cameron still had confidence in the Bank of England governor.
Referring to the fact that King's position is independent of government, the spokesman said: "The issue of confidence simply doesn't arise. The governor of the Bank of England makes lots of statements, as you would expect. The issue of confidence simply doesn't arise."
When asked whether the prime minister thought King was doing a good job, the prime minister's official spokesman, said: "Yeah."
The head of the Bank of England privately criticised David Cameron and George Osborne for their lack of experience, the lack of depth in their inner circle and their tendency to think about issues only in terms of their electoral impact, according to leaked US embassy cables revealed by the Guardian today.
King told Susman he had held private meetings with the two Conservative politicians before the election to urge them to draw up a detailed plan to reduce the deficit.
He said the pair operated too much within a narrow circle and "had a tendency to think about issues only in terms of politics, and how they might affect Tory electability".
The prime minister's spokesman's response came as Tristram Hunt, a Labour member of the political and constitutional reform select committee, claimed issues had now arisen about King's role in the coalition formation negotiations in May. The political and constitutional reform select committee is conducting an inquiry into the conduct of the coalition's formation, including the role of the civil service.
Hunt said: "There now seems to be mounting evidence that King was generating an atmosphere of crisis around the issue of the deficit boxing politicians in so there was no choice but to support his view."
Graham Allen, the chairman of the select committee, is taking soundings on whether to ask King to explain his role to the committee in writing.
Meanwhile Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, assured Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, that the WikiLeaks disclosures being released in the UK by the Guardian would not damage Anglo-American relations.
Clegg met Clinton at the OSCE summit at Astana, Kazakhstan. He said: "I made clear to Secretary Clinton that recent WikiLeaks disclosures would not affect our uniquely strong relationship. UK-US co-operation will continue with the same depth and closeness as before."

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