Yet another coalition split has emerged after chancellor George Osborne has locked horns with Nick Clegg over the deputy PM's call for a temporary tax on the rich.

Osborne said it would be ill advised to drive the wealthy away saying he had already taken steps to force the UK's highest earners to pay more. He insisted it was vital to retain entrepreneurs that would help drive the economic recovery.

Clegg called for people of 'very considerable' wealth to pay more to help revive the UK's flagging financial health.

His suggestion is certain to appease his Liberal Democrat foot soldiers ahead of next month's party conference.

But Osborne said: 'I am clear that the wealthy should pay more which is why in the recent budget I increased the tax on very expensive property transactions. But we also have to be careful as a country we don't drive away the wealth creators and the businesses that are going to lead our economic recovery.'

In the March budget, the deputy PM backed a cut in the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p - a huge boost to the UK's most wealthy individuals. Clegg insisted his temporary tax idea would only hit those with the highest assets rather than incomes.

Clegg said: 'In addition to our standing policy on things like the mansion tax is there a time limited contribution you can ask in some way or another from people of considerable wealth so they feel they are making a contribution to the national effort?

'What people once thought might have been a short sharp economic battle, a short sharp recession, is clearly turning into a longer term process of economic recovery and fiscal restraint. That begs big questions.'

France recently targeted the wealthy in its bid to repair its crumbling public finances.

But Tory backbencher Bernard Jenkin said Clegg's comments were the 'politics of envy' and would kill the 'goose that lays the golden egg'.