During the course of Saturday, a number of shadow cabinet figures and others made clear their support for shadow chancellor George Osborne over his outspoken attack on the Government in the Times, in which he stated that too much government borrowing risked a run on the pound.
Perhaps most significantly, the former Chancellor Ken Clarke has now added his voice to unquestionably back Mr Osborne’s position – and to pour scorn on the suggestion coming from political opponents that it was breaking a convention for him to speak out in this way.
Here’s what Ken Clarke has had to say:
"I have never heard of any convention that Opposition politicians – including the Shadow Chancellor – cannot comment on Sterling. The foreign exchange markets had already made their minds up about the pound, regardless of any political comment.
"Gordon Brown reminds me of Harold Wilson blaming the weakness of sterling on people ‘selling the pound short’ when it had already been weakened by his government’s own policies. The pound has dropped more than 30% from its peak because of concern in the markets about the scale of government borrowing.
"George Osborne has made a perfectly sensible comment that in any analysis of the situation, one must have regard to the possible problems of selling more government bonds, or of a possible fall in the value of sterling if government policy becomes too reckless."