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Ed Balls has attacked George Osborne for using the snow as an excuse for poor growth figures.
In his first outing in the Commons as shadow chancellor, he made fun of the chancellor's claim that the economy shrank by 0.5 per cent in the last quarter due to bad weather.
"It snowed so badly in December in Britain that airports closed, our economy shuddered to a halt and consumer confidence slumped," he said.
"In America it snowed so badly that airports closed but pace of economic growth increased.
"Is there something different about snow in Britain or is there a better explanation why the American economy grew and Britain's economy did not?"
And he said the government had "no plans for jobs, no plan for growth" and "no plan B".
But Osborne said Balls was a man "running away from his past" who had "knighted [former RBS boss] Fred Goodwin" and was the Labour leadership candidate who "for reasons of political positioning denies the deficit".
He said: "We have got a plan to clear up his mess."
Balls, who has long coveted the economics portfolio, paid tribute to his predecessor in the role, Alan Johnson, and said it was a "great responsibility" to become shadow chancellor at this "critical time for our economy and our country".
But he said it was a good thing he did not take one of the early morning meetings that Johnson had favoured as he would have missed "this morning's rather hurried mini-Budget".
Britain's banks were hit with a surprise £800m tax bill this morning when the chancellor announced on the radio that the government's bank levy would be made permanent.
Originally the government had planned to phase in the tax rate but has decided to impose the full level, intended to raise £2.5bn in 2011 and 2012, as the banking industry had recovered faster than expected.
But ahead of today's Commons showdown Balls said Osborne had actually cut taxes for banks compared to last year as he had failed to impose a tax on bankers bonuses and had cut corporation tax.
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