The former Conservative chancellor Kenneth Clarke warned that personal attacks on Ed Miliband will cost votes, as he lamented the lack of a balanced economy with rising living standards.

The veteran Tory’s intervention at such a sensitive time before the election is likely to be seen as highly unhelpful by his own party, which is neck-and-neck in the polls with Labour.

In an interview with the New Statesman, he set out his view that the recovery was very fragile and could be “swept away if we start doing silly things”, as well as making it clear there should be no “blank cheques”.

This may be interpreted as a veiled warning about the £25bn of unfunded promises made by Cameron and chancellor George Osborne.

Clarke, who was justice secretary and minister without portfolio under Cameron as well as chancellor under John Major, also had a raft of criticisms of the way Britain works in language that could have been uttered by Miliband.

“We still have not created a rebalanced, modern, competitive economy, which can start producing sustainable rises in living standards and employment laws, and I think it is the single biggest issue affecting the country at the moment – that’s my genuine view,” he said.

“You do need to campaign, and talk about the economy in a different way, you can’t take anything for granted. People want quicker solutions, simple solutions.”

“We’ve got a very good recovery at the moment, but it’s very fragile and can soon be swept away if we start doing silly things.”

Talking of the Conservatives’ failure to win an election for 23 years, he said he belongs to the party of pre-1992 that usually won. Asked what that was down to, he said: “Well, it’s become much too rightwing. Which I hope David will continue to seek to redress in coming times.”

He also spoke of the danger that personal attacks on rivals such as Miliband could cost Cameron power. Clarke would not comment on the backlash against defence secretary Michael Fallon, who said Miliband could “stab the UK in the back” over the renewal of Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons system, because he took on his brother to win the Labour leadership.

But Clarke said: “The public debate and the media, which is becoming increasingly celebrity culture, rather hysterical, sensational, and reduces the whole thing to theatre. Everybody’s election campaigns are presidential, everything’s attributed to the party leader.

“What matters is how the party leader eats a hamburger and all this type of thing. I mean, it does switch the public off … personally I disapprove of personal attacks on your opponents. I’ve never done that. I also think it costs you votes. If either side goes in for personal attacks on the other side.”

Also on Thursday, Cameron attacked the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, for saying a note left in the Treasury by a former Labour minister warning there was no money left was a joke.

He claimed Balls’s comments about the Byrne note were “frankly the most appalling thing I have heard in this election campaign so far”. Balls was Ed Miliband’s third choice to be shadow chancellor and was “the country’s last choice to be put in charge of this nation’s finances”, he added.



Cameron criticised Balls personally after the shadow chancellor gave a speech claiming the Tories have amassed £25bn of unfunded spending commitments in their manifesto – the equivalent of £1,439 a year for every working household.