Economy: Brown warns of Tory 'risk to fragile recovery'

The Prime Minister said David Cameron's "big society means big cuts in public services. It's a risk for our mainstream public services that Britain cannot afford to take."

Mr Brown was attempting to shift the election spotlight away from Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's recent poll successes and back on the substantive issues like the economy.

He said Labour was in the "futures business" with bold and ambitious plans for the country, while the Tories were in the "risk business".

Mr Brown's warning came as Labour launched a spoof newspaper front page and radio news broadcast warning of "an emergency Budget backlash" if the Tories took power.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said that, if Mr Cameron got the keys to Number 10 Downing Street, George Osborne, as Tory Chancellor, would deliver an emergency Budget in June.

According to the broadcast, Britain would be struggling to contain its anger after Mr Osborne had been "forced to make significant reductions" in public services and leading economists had warned that a "double-dip recession" was a real possibility.

Mr Brown said last week's campaign has been "a tale of two Nicks" – focusing on National Insurance contributions (Nics) and Nick Clegg. But this week the parties would be focusing on the "big questions about our country's future."

He said economic indicators showed the country continued to emerge from recession but "the recovery is fragile" and it was not a time to put that at risk with a Tory government. The Prime Minister said the election was now "wide open". Chancellor Alistair Darling accused the Tories of not spelling out the consequences of cutting 6bn from public spending and accused Mr Osborne of being "reckless" with the economy.

Mr Darling maintained that Labour had supported efforts to reduce job losses during the recession and taken moves to stop families losing their homes.

He was optimistic about the future of the economy, but added: "We are not yet out of the woods and now is not the time to be making cuts." Mr Darling claimed that, under the Tory plans, 14,200 teachers could lose their jobs and there could be 2,400 fewer police as part of the public spending cuts.

"I am optimistic about Britain's economic future and I am confident we will see a return to strong growth next year."

He accused Mr Osborne of "compounding" the problems a future government would have to face, adding: "Were George Osborne to be elected, he has compounded these problems time and again by taking a reckless approach to public finances, presenting this country with a huge risk."