Chancellor’s ‘hubris’ over economy

The Labour leader said the coalition had presided over the slowest recovery in 100 years, and only the wealthy are benefiting from its policies.

While acknowledging that the overall unemployment figure had shown an improvement yesterday morning, Mr Miliband mocked Chancellor George Osborne for claiming in a speech that he had been proven right over his handling of UK plc. Mr Miliband said people were on average £1,500 a year worse off since the coalition came to power in 2010.

“The Chancellor went out and said he had saved the economy. Total complacency and total hubris,” Mr Miliband said. “At a time when, even today, unemployment is rising in half the country.

“It was the Chancellor who choked off the recovery and now he wants to somehow claim credit for it. And people’s living standards continue to fall.”

Mr Cameron admitted the Government “faced a challenge” to raise people’s living standards, but pointed to low interest rates and the £10,000 tax threshold.

He said Mr Osborne’s optimism was “legitimate”, adding: “Real complacency is going back to tax-and-spend and borrowing through the roof.”

Earlier Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable said the Government still has a lot of work to do to entrench a recovery.