The Tories scored an undoubted coup on Sunday by recruiting the chancellor’s erstwhile ambassador to the City to head their review of financial regulation. The charge from political opponents was that such PR victories in the launch of the Conservatives’ economic plan could not mask a lack of underlying substance.

George Osborne, shadow chancellor, will on Monday present the 40-page economic reconstruction plan as the Tories’ answer to what the opposition party is calling Gordon Brown’s “age of irresponsibility”. Mr Osborne will assert that his proposed curbs on government debt and City behaviour will “make sure that this mess never happens again”. The plan has several disparate elements, many aimed at medium- to long-term economic recovery, rather than addressing the immediate financial crisis.