Cameron attacks Brown over debt levels

David Cameron has attacked the prime minister for the levels of national debt at the beginning of what the governor of the Bank of England says is a recession.

Speaking at prime minister's questions the Conservative leader accused Gordon Brown of talking about "the joys of borrowing without limit" which will lead to long-term economic problems for the country.

The leader of the opposition said: "At the end of a long boom and just as the downturn is beginning, Britain has one of the biggest budget deficits in the industrialised world."

He went on to suggest that as chancellor Brown had not prepared the finances for the possibility of a downturn.

The prime minister countered that the Conservatives were indecisive and had no solutions because they did not understand the problem.

Brown said: "The reason we can afford to borrow is because we have low national debt. We have lower debt than America, France, Germany, Japan and Italy.

"I have to put it to him that it is the right thing to do during global financial problems for the government to increase economic activity by borrowing to do so."

Cameron came back that : "Of course borrowing goes up in a downturn. His problem is that he racked it up to record levels before the downturn began.

"How can he possibly think it is right to go into a recession with such a high level of debt?"

But Brown replied that the government had cut debt from the levels Labour inherited from the Conservatives in 1997 and that in order to continue investing in public services and stimulate the economy, borrowing was now necessary but affordable.