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Alan Johnson has clashed with George Osborne during his first question session as shadow chancellor of the exchequer.
He accused the coalition government of planning to row back from radical cuts to public spending, after comments by energy secretary Chris Huhne at the weekend.
Johnson mocked his own "vast experience in this job" but said the cuts planned would hit the poorest two and a half times harder than those better off.
He claimed that the deficit was unavoidable and the budget is wrong, not the chancellor's argument that the deficit was wrong and the budget's cuts unavoidable.
Johnson said it is foolish to cut public spending before there is a momentum behind private sector spending.
Osborne welcomed Johnson to his new role and expressed the hope he would remain shadow chancellor five years or more.
The chancellor told the House that the IMF, CBI and OECD all back the tough cuts planned by the coalition government. The country is paying £120m a day in debt interest, and under Labour's plans the debt interest would have grown to £60bn a year.
Osborne said the IMF has called his plans strong and credible and his actions had moved Britain "out of the danger zone" and secured the country's credit rating.
Shadow Treasury minister David Hanson asked chief secretary Danny Alexander about the joint statement from the leaders of the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish governments condemning the cuts as too deep and too fast.
Alexander replied that budgets for those nations are set by the Barnett formula and the decision to protect the NHS will "reflect well" on those budgets.
He challenged the Labour opposition to come up with some ideas of its own on how to cut the deficit.
Shadow Treasury minister Chris Leslie attacked the coalition's "ideological games" on fiscal policy asked if the government plans to return to quantitative easing.
Treasury minister Mark Hoban said that is a matter for the Bank of England.
Shadow chief secretary Angela Eagle asked if there would be delays in the £23bn of cuts next year expected in the comprehensive spending review.
Treasury minister Justine Greening replied that the government is sticking to its projections and added there have been more than 100,000 suggestions from the public on how to cut the deficit but none from the opposition.
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