The main points from prime minister's questions on Wednesday, 26 March, from 1200 GMT:
The main points from prime minister's questions on Wednesday, 26 March, from 1200 GMT:
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he welcomed President Sarkozy and his wife to the UK. He said he would be discussing joint action on illegal immigration and measures to tackle global financial instability.
Conservative leader David Cameron also welcomed the Sarkozys to the UK.
Mr Cameron used all six of his questions to attack Mr Brown's record on the economy. He used a Treasury Select Committee report to criticise his handling of the Northern Rock crisis, accusing the government of "dithering" compared to the swift action taken by the US government over the collapse of Bear Stearns. Mr Cameron said the Bank of England should be in charge of bank rescues rather than the Financial Services Authority, which he said was short of expertise in key areas.
Mr Brown said the Financial Services Authority had done a good job. He said it could do more - but every regulator around the world was facing similar problems. He accused Mr Cameron of having "no basic grasp of arithmetic" - a quote from Tory supporting novelist Frederick Forsyth.
Mr Cameron said it was "pathetic" for Mr Brown to read out quotes from novelists. He challenged Mr Brown to name one other major country that was responding to the downturn by putting up taxes. He said every other country had put away money in the good times except Britain and he called on Mr Brown to take responsibility for this.
Mr Brown said the government was cutting the basic rate of income tax to 20p and was "injecting more money into the economy this year". He said Britain had the lowest rate of inflation of the major countries and had unemployment at half the rate of other EU countries.
"I just wish he knew something about economics when he came to this house to tell us what to do". He said all Mr Cameron could offer was "slogans not substance" and said the Tories had learned nothing since the 1990s.
