The Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, disclosed today that he gave no fresh information to Nick Clegg that could have led the Liberal Democrat leader to call for a faster deficit reduction programme than the one outlined by his party during the election campaign.

In perhaps the single biggest policy volte-face of the coalition negotiations, the Lib Dems abandoned their policy of maintaining the government's economic stimulus through this financial year and backed the tougher Tory plan instead.

Clegg, the deputy prime minister, has frequently cited calls with King as critical to this decision.

But King told the Treasury select committee today that he had said nothing to Clegg during a call on 15 May that he had not already said in public, most notably at a press conference three days earlier.

He said he spoke to Clegg at the request of the new government, five days after Clegg announced he was forming a coalition government with David Cameron in which a faster programme of deficit reduction was agreed.

King also confirmed that it was at the request of the new government that he had set out his views on the dangers facing the economy from the potential sovereign debt crisis in Europe at the press conference.

It is a grey area whether the governor of the Bank of England, responsible for monetary policy, should comment in public on fiscal policy.

In an Observer interview on 6 June, Clegg described his conversation with King. "He couldn't have been more emphatic. He said: 'If you don't do this, then because of the deterioration of market conditions it will be even more painful to do it later.'"

But King said today: "I said nothing that was not already in the public domain. In the telephone conversation I basically repeated what I had said at the press conference".

Asked by the Labour backbench MP, Chuka Umunna, whether he felt comfortable being drawn into politically sensitive matters, King replied: " I do not think central bankers ever feel comfortable when they are drawn into comments made by politicians. But on this occasion the government has asked openly in writing for me to express my views which I did at the inflation report press conference, and I was asked if I would accept a telephone call by the deputy prime minister on the Saturday morning. I think it would have been unreasonable not to have accepted that telephone call. I did so and I had a private conversation".

He added he did not feel used by the politicians saying: "There was nothing I said in that conversation that was different from what I had said in public. When I am needed to give advice I try to make sure the advice I give is full square in private and in public".

At the Wednesday press conference King said: "I think we've seen in the last two weeks, particularly, but in the case of Greece, over the last three months, that it doesn't make sense to run the risk of an adverse market reaction, but to get ahead of that and to demonstrate – markets have been waiting for the UK election; that is now over.

"They would expect a new government to take decisive action. And the agreement that I've been informed about, that was reached between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats is a very strong and powerful agreement to reduce that deficit and to take more action than was embodied in the budget in the spring."

The outline coalition agreement published on 12 May agreed "a significantly accelerated reduction in the structural deficit over the course of a parliament, with the main burden of deficit reduction borne by reduced spending rather than increased taxes. It also said: "The parties agree that modest cuts of £6bn to non-frontline services can be made within the financial year 2010-11, subject to advice from the Treasury and the Bank of England on their feasibility and advisability".

The fuller coalition agreement produced after the King – Clegg call made no substantial changes to the agreement on deficit reduction.

Umunna claimed yesterday: "The information which the governor has provided today is hugely significant, raising questions about Nick Clegg's reasons for changing his economic outlook so dramatically.

"The public deserve answers on the reasons for his Damascene conversion after his party had fought the election opposing the Conservatives' plans for rapid deficit reduction, given the very painful measures he is now imposing with his coalition partners.

"If he is unable to provide this information, it will simply lend credence to those who claim the Liberal Democrats have swapped their principles for ministerial red boxes and the chance to ride in ministerial cars."

In a recent Guardian interview Clegg again cited the call with the governor but in less emphatic terms saying: "It is unbelievably important when you are facing a fiscal firestorm like this that you assert sovereignty and control over the situation, that you show very quickly that you are going to deal with it on your own terms.

"The alternative because of what happened during the general election campaign – let us remember the Spanish crisis only blew up after the third leadership debate, this all came very late – it was really obvious, and this was confirmed to me by a conversation I had with the governor of the Bank of England and other people, that if we didn't assert control very quickly you would have something immeasurably worse than what we are doing now. Instead of having a government that was accountable to the people taking difficult decisions you'd have even more unpleasant decisions being taken by people who are not accountable at all."