David Cameron vowed to rise above the party political fray today as he offered Tory support to emergency legislation to help Britain ride out the economic crisis.

The day after Congress rejected a $700 billion bailout for the banking sector Mr Cameron broke into the schedule at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham to deliver an statement on the unfolding crisis.

"Today is a time for us to send a clear message to our political opponents and to our country: let us not allow the political wrangling that took place in America happen here in our own country," he said.

Immediately after his speech, the Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, left the conference and boarded a train to London to attend a cross-party meeting at the Treasury to which Vince Cable, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, was also invited.

He used the talks with Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, to offer the party's backing in getting legislation through Parliament that would make it easier for the Bank of England to save ailing banks. The Tories had previously opposed the proposals.

"People know that there are serious questions to be asked about how we got into the situation that we are in, but today is not the day to be asking those questions," Mr Osborne told reporters outside the Treasury. "Today is a day for working together."

On Capitol Hill yesterday, a Bill intended to eliminate toxic debt from the crumbling American mortgage market failed to get the necessary support among either side of the House of Representatives, especially the Republican minority.

Party leaders on both sides had counselled co-operation and urged that the plan be endorsed. In the end, its rejection saw Wall Street's largest ever single-day point fall and one of its biggest ever percentage drops.

Mr Cameron, in a sombre speech, said that his party would help the Government rush through emergency economic legislation when Parliament returned from the summer recess on Monday.

He told delegates that his party would drop its opposition to the Government’s proposals to give the Bank of England the power to rescue ailing banks and that he would help force through new legislation to further protect the savings of British consumers.

Mr Cameron insisted that "bankers must pay for the mistakes they make" but urged a calm and bipartisan response from politicians in the short term.

"We must not let anger cloud our judgment," he said. "It’s easy to see why people are so angry with the bankers today. They paid themselves vast rewards when all was going well and the minute it went wrong they came to us to bail them out.

"There will be a day of reckoning but today isn’t that day. Today we must do everything necessary to protect the stability of the system because everyone’s jobs, savings, pensions and mortgages depend on it."

The Tory leader, with the entire Shadow Cabinet on stage, made the speech this morning rather than wait for his keynote address tomorrow, which will still go ahead.

Mr Cameron spoke to Gordon Brown on the telephone last night. He used the call, which he instigated himself, to offer his support for any crisis measures.

Mr Brown this morning described the rejection in the House of Representatives of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan as "very disappointing".

Setting out his party’s position, Mr Cameron said: "We must pass legislation to enable the Bank of England to rescue failing banks.

"That legislation is ready, it can be brought before Parliament on Monday and I will support it.

"We have been arguing with the Government over one aspect - who pulls the trigger to start the process of rescuing a bank. We argued it should be the Bank of England, the Government argued it should be the Financial Services Authority.

"In the end, what matters is getting the legislation through quickly and so I can announce today we are prepared to drop that objection to allow rapid and safe passage of the Bill and we can return to the issue later."

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