The Conservatives have accused Gordon Brown of presiding over a “lurch to the left” as they sought to exploit anti-business rhetoric from Labour’s deputy leadership elections to lay claim to the political centre ground.

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, argued that policies advocated by ministers competing for the deputy post showed “the leftwards march of ideas within the Labour party”. He warned that if the hustings rhetoric became government policy “our financial services industry would be crippled and our labour market would become more uncompetitive”.