The new Prime Minister, David Cameron, has said that Britain is "open for business" and that his government would "get our economy moving". He also praised the Lib Dem's Vincent Cable, who will take up the post of Business Secretary.

Mr Cameron, on a visit to the Business Department, said, "We face huge economic challenges and I think it's so important that we really demonstrate that this country is open for business, that we want to promote trade overseas, that we want to get our economy moving, we want to get our banks lending.

"I see this as a big economic department with a huge task in front of it and I want all of you to work together to help deliver that."

He added, "The more I think about the endeavour on which we have embarked, the more excited I become, because this coalition government - if we can make it work, and I believe we can - is a five-year government.

"And one of the things that everyone says about our economy is that we need to make more long-term decisions.

"We have an incredible opportunity to make long-term decisions for the good of our economy, for the good of our country, and in doing so I will try as prime minister to do something else that hasn't always happened in the past and that is to appoint good ministers and keep them in post for a decent period of time.

"The average length of ministerial life is about one year, three months. We have got to do better than that when we have these big challenges in front of us."

The appointment of Vincent Cable as Business Secretary came as a surprise as former Tory Chancellor Kenneth Clarke was expected to take the post.

Mr Cable, although relatively popular among the general public and sections of the media has raised eyebrows in the past in the business community for policy proposals which seemed to target the wealthy in unnecessary ways.

Just a few days before the election he was accused of a policy akin to a "witch-hunt" when he said he wanted to publish the names of the country's highest earners. His proposed "mansion tax", which has been scrapped by the coalition, was also condemned as an attack on the rich but also as a way of penalising elderly couples who happened to own houses in expensive areas.

He also once called for the department of business, which he will now head, to be abolished. He has now said that he had "learned the error of my ways, not least in the last few days".