Budget 09: Cameron slams Labour's decade of debt

Opposition leader David Cameron’s response to the Budget castigated the government’s doubling of national debt to £348bn over the next two years to a figure larger than that achieved by every other government put together.

Cameron warned that the chancellor’s forecast public sector net debt of £606bn over the next four years was likely to be too optimistic. He noted that the Red Book shows that the figures are based on consumer spending returning to “pre-boom” levels by 2011.

Cameron slammed the chancellor’s correction in GDP growth forecasts from -1% in the Pre-Budget Report in November to the -3.5% figure presented in the Budget.