David Cameron has denied he is steering clear of criticising bankers and hedge fund managers as the Bradford & Bingley crisis escalates.

The Conservative Party leader today hit out at those who have been “bashing” bankers for sparking global financial turmoil, insisting he would not seek “cheap headlines” by blaming greedy City practices for the current crisis.

“What you won’t hear from me this week is the sort of easy cheap lines beating up on the market system, bashing financiers,” he told the BBC.

“It might get you some easy headlines, but it is not going to pay a single mortgage, it’s not going to save a single job.”

Speaking as his party's annual conference got under way in Birmingham, Mr Cameron refuted suggestions that he was going easy on bankers because they contribute heavily to Tory coffers.

“They don’t have any influence on my policy at all,” he said, warning that the Tories would not sign “blank cheques” for the taxpayer to bail out failing institutions.

“I think that we have had a failure of regulation and we have had a debt boom that went on for far too long and it reached into parts of the economy it shouldn’t have done. The whole thing has become infected and it has got to be dealt with. What matters most of all is safeguarding the depositors in a bank like Bradford & Bingley.”

Mr Cameron stressed that the Opposition would act “responsibly” and help the Government deal with the crisis, but claimed nationalising institutions such as B&B and Northern Rock left the taxpayer with the “whole risk”.

Instead, the Bank of England should be empowered to help struggling banks through without leaving the Treasury liable for billions of pounds in debt.

“Taxpayers are facing an incredible difficult time," he said. "I don’t want us to turn round to the tax payer and say you have got to pick up every last bill for every bad banking decision made by every last financier. That is not right.”

Mr Cameron acknowledged that he could not rule out tax rises if a Conservative government comes to power.

But he insisted that his policy of “sharing the proceeds of growth” meant that he should be able to reduce taxes over the longer term.

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