Opposition 'praying for bad news'

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Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has accused opposition parties of "praying for bad economic news".

Asked about claims by shadow work secretary Theresa May that job centres were being closed, he accused her of searching for "cheap headlines".

The Tories said he either "doesn't know what's going on, or at worse he is trying to dupe the public".

The row came unemployment passed 2m and an IMF report predicted recession would last longer in the UK than elsewhere.

Ms May has accused ministers of "taking people for fools" in their pledge to halt JobCentre Plus closures - saying three were due to close in London and people would have to travel further to other offices which were already struggling to deal with all the people losing their jobs.

'Sleepwalking through crisis'

The government says they were scheduled to close before the moratorium was announced in November.

But she told the BBC: "I think most people understand when a moratorium is announced it means you're not going to close any more job centres.

"But we learnt only earlier this week that job centres are still closing and that causes problems for people."

You feel they are praying for bad economic news because they think it will help them politically Lord Mandelson <a class="" href="/1/hi/business/7947766.stm">Unemployment passes two million</a><a class="" href="/1/hi/business/7949978.stm">UK recession 'will last longest'</a>

Asked about her comments Lord Mandelson told Sky News: "No job centres are being closed down and you know, I think this search for cheap headlines by opposition politicians, this constant desire to talk everyone and everything down - you know sometimes I have listened to them and you feel they are praying for bad economic news because they think it will help them politically."

He said he had met 150 business leaders this week who were "getting increasingly fed up of people - some people in politics and the media - talking the country down, constantly pointing at bad news".

Unemployment rises

A Conservative spokesman said: "At best Lord Mandelson doesn't know what's going on, at worse he is trying to dupe the public - this is yet more evidence of Labour sleepwalking their way through the recession - the public deserve better."

Lord Mandelson is meeting business representatives from the G20 countries in Downing Street on Wednesday at a summit he said would help inform the agenda when the world leaders gather in London in two weeks..

Meanwhile official figures have shown that, in the three months to January, UK unemployment rose above two million for the first time since 1997.

The Office for National Statistics said unemployment figures hit 2.03 million, up by 165,000. For February, the number of people getting jobseeker's allowance increased 138,400 to reach 1.39 million.

Also on Wednesday the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted the UK would be the only member of the G7 group of leading industrial countries that would continue to see its economy contract in 2010.

And the City watchdog - the Financial Services Authority - is unveiling proposals to overhaul UK banking regulation - including new rules on lending and restricting banks' ability to take excessive risks.