This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk_politics/8012052.stm
The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| UK economy in a 'mess' - Cameron | UK economy in a 'mess' - Cameron |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| Labour has left the economy in an "utter mess", Tory leader David Cameron has said, after the chancellor said the economy would shrink 3.5% this year. | Labour has left the economy in an "utter mess", Tory leader David Cameron has said, after the chancellor said the economy would shrink 3.5% this year. |
| Mr Cameron said the UK was now in the worst recession since 1945 and its public finances were out of control. | Mr Cameron said the UK was now in the worst recession since 1945 and its public finances were out of control. |
| Chancellor Alistair Darling said the economy would recover in 2010 but borrowing would total £175bn this year. | Chancellor Alistair Darling said the economy would recover in 2010 but borrowing would total £175bn this year. |
| Labour's claim to economic competence was "dead", Mr Cameron told MPs, after it had presided over a "decade a debt". | Labour's claim to economic competence was "dead", Mr Cameron told MPs, after it had presided over a "decade a debt". |
| 'Red chapter' | |
| Describing the Budget as a "missed opportunity", Mr Cameron said the government was "running out of money, moral authority and time". | |
| He said the chancellor's predictions for future growth in the economy - Mr Darling forecast the economy would expand by 1.25% in 2010 and by 3.5% in the year after - were wildly unrealistic. | |
| Borrowing levels announced in the Budget were historic, Mr Cameron claimed, and the chancellor had "written a whole chapter of red ink" across the economy. | |
| He [Gordon Brown] will never bring the changes required because he does not accept the economic model he has run during the last 12 years is fundamentally bust David Cameron | |
| Mr Darling had failed to come up with a credible plan to bring the public finances back into balance, Mr Cameron added. | |
| The Conservative leader attacked a plan to raise income tax for those earning more than £150,000 a year next April as politically driven and said the bulk of tax increases Labour planned were being delayed until after the next election - expected next year. | |
| He said Gordon Brown failed to understand the extent of the problems facing the UK because he was in denial about his role in causing them | |
| "He will never bring the changes required because he does not accept the economic model he has run during the last 12 years is fundamentally bust," he said. | |
| Earlier, during prime minister's questions, Mr Brown accused the Conservatives of wanting to "cut their way through" the recession. | |
| For the Lib Dems, Nick Clegg said the Budget was a "mismash of recycled announcements" which would do little to help those at risk of losing their jobs and their businesses. |