RESPONDING to public anger about bankers’ behaviour, Tony Caldeira, City of Liverpool Conservatives chairman, said his party must get the banks lending again, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises in Merseyside.

“This will be done by a £50bn loan guarantee scheme,” he said.

“It will enable small businesses access to cash-flow and investment funding.

“It will also help banks repair their battered balance sheets.”

In contrast, Labour asked banks to repair their balance sheets and simultaneously to lend – which has not happened.

“By guaranteeing some of the more marginal lending from banks, the Government can share the risk with the banks and support more business at this very difficult time,” he said.

“Many Conservatives believe the tri-partite regulation system, which was set up by Gordon Brown in 1997, is partly to blame for the financial crisis.

“We want regulation given back to the Bank of England, where it belongs.”

However, British business leaders have serious doubts over the Conservative Party's choice of finance-minister-in-waiting, and fear an inconclusive election next week will hit the economy, a Reuters poll showed.

Support for Prime Minister Gordon Brown among the chief executives and finance directors surveyed was almost non-existent, while backing for current Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling was little better.

Top choice for next finance minister was Conservative business spokesman Ken Clarke, a Thatcher-era political veteran.

The former finance minister, who slashed a big budget deficit in the mid-1990s, polled well ahead of Conservative Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, who would have to tackle a far larger deficit if he got the job in a Conservative government.

The survey of 58 executive directors, at companies employing over 350,000 people in Britain between them, also showed 90% fear the increasingly likely scenario of an inconclusive result in the May 6 election would harm economic recovery.