Mr Tony Blair and Mr John Prescott were beating the drum for British tourism yesterday amid warnings that the foot-and-mouth crisis could cost the industry £5 billion sterling by September.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives stoked tensions on back of claims that the government ignored an army report into the 1967 crisis and its failure to act quickly led to the near doubling of the present epidemic.
Conservative agriculture spokesman Mr Tim Yeo also criticised yesterday's government announcement of a £120 million loans package to help cash-strapped businesses through the crisis. He said the government offer represented just a quarter of what the Conservatives had proposed.
Mr Blair and his wife met "Vikings" at a tourist attraction in York while the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Prescott, went sailing on the Norfolk Broads, both trying to hammer home that the British countryside was "open for business".
And anxiety about the higher-than-predicted cost to tourism and the economy, confirmed in an audit given to the government on Thursday, was reflected in continuing reports that ministers have been ordered to spend their Easter holidays in the UK.
Trade and Industry Secretary Mr Stephen Byers confirmed the new money available through an extension of the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme. Mr Blair, meanwhile, announced a £6 million government-funded promotional campaign, and used a series of interviews with US, French and Japanese broadcasters to make the case for British tourism.
"The main thing tourism needs is people, trade and business. The most important thing to get across to people is that Britain is open and there is no problem with people coming over. We have simply got to get across a proper sense of perspective," he said.
Meanwhile, Conservative defence spokesman Mr Iain Duncan Smith said the government had failed to learn the lesson of the military report into the 1967 crisis urging the immediate deployment of the army in the event of even a small outbreak of foot-and-mouth.
"If they read it, they certainly didn't understand it, or read it with their eyes shut, because every mistake that has been made was made in 1967," he told the BBC.
However, Junior Agriculture Minister Ms Joyce Quin insisted the Ministry and the Ministry of Defence were in consultation from the day the outbreak was first suspected.
She said contrary to Mr William Hague's proposal earlier this week, the 1967 report recommended that the civilian authorities should retain overall control.
Mr Hague was embarrassed earlier this week when Brig Alex Birtwistle, senior officer assisting the culling in Cumbria, rejected his suggestion that the army be put in overall control of the effort to eradicate the disease.
However, the Daily Telegraph yesterday said the Ministry of Defence had confirmed issuing on Tuesday an order to its personnel in Dumfries and Galloway saying overall responsibility for operations should be vested in Lieut-Col Alex Alderson, director of operations. Mr Duncan-Smith suggested "political interference" had led to the rescinding of the order on the same day because it was in line with Mr Hague's demand.