Vince Cable denies Chancellor ambitions as pressure mounts on George Osborne

Business Secretary Vince Cable denied today that he was pushing to be made Chancellor, as David Cameron faced a call from one of his own backbenchers to move George Osborne out of the Treasury.

Mr Cable sparked speculation over his ambitions when he told BBC2’s Newsnight last night that he would “probably” make a good chancellor. But the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary insisted today that he was working in a team with Mr Osborne, and did not have a “radically different” agenda for the economy from the Tory Chancellor.

The Chancellor has come under increasing pressure after growth figures released yesterday showed Britain slipping deeper into recession, with gross domestic product (GDP) shrinking by 0.7 per cent between April and June.

Mr Cameron acknowledged today that the figures were “very disappointing” and said more needed to be done to stimulate growth by attracting inward investment and supporting infrastructure development.

But Mr Osborne received a strong endorsement from the secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), Angel Gurria, who urged him to “persevere” with his deficit-reduction strategy and “stay the course”.

Mr Gurria told Radio 4’s Today programme that Mr Osborne was “sowing the seeds of what will be the elements for recovery” and warned that any weakening of resolve would be punished by the ratings agencies and the markets.

But dissatisfaction on the Conservative backbenches with Mr Osborne’s performance broke into the open as Nadine Dorries said in a tweet: “For the sake of country and Conservative party, most trusted politician in UK, William Hague, needs to become Chancellor.”

But the Mid-Bedfordshire MP, a regular critic of the Tory leadership team, made clear she did not expect Mr Osborne to be sacked, adding the Twitter hashtag “#wonthappen”.

Asked if he wanted to be Chancellor, Mr Cable told Today: “I am not pushing for the job. We are part of a team. We have a collective agreed policy and I am delivering on my bit of it, which centres on the area of industrial strategy.

“I am not proposing a radically different approach.”

If he were to be made Chancellor, he said, “I would be building on what George Osborne has already achieved”.