Miliband accuses PM of complacency

Miliband accuses PM of complacency: "

Labour leader attacks PM over OBR predictions about unemployment but Cameron claims UK is experiencing 'one of the fastest recoveries in Europe'

David Cameron insisted today that Britain was seeing 'one of the fastest recoveries in Europe' as he rejected Ed Miliband's claim that he was guilty of complacency over the economy.

The prime minister and the Labour leader traded insults as they argued over the forecasts outlined by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) on Monday.

Miliband pointed to figures in fiscal watchdog's autumn forecast that predicted a rise in unemployment next year and a 'sluggish' recovery. He said Cameron was 'complacent about the recovery' and 'complacent about the people who will lose their jobs'.

'What you need to explain is: unemployment will fall next year in the USA, it will fall in Germany, it will fall in other major industrial countries but it will rise in the United Kingdom. Why is that the case?' asked Miliband.

Cameron fired back that Miliband was talking down the economy despite good news from the OBR.

Miliband cited the decision to increase VAT from January and cut public spending by £20bn. 'That's why the OBR says that we will have the weakest recovery from recession for 40 years,' he said.

In a sideswipe at the Tory leadership, he seized on information revealed in the leaked US cables that show that William Hague, then shadow foreign secretary, told the deputy at the US embassy in early 2008 that Cameron, George Osborne and himself were all 'children of Thatcher'.

Miliband told MPs: 'It's no wonder that today we learn the foreign secretary describes this gang as the children of Thatcher; it's just like the 1980s: out of touch with ordinary people up and down the country.'

Cameron said that his mother could testify that this was not 'literally true', before adding: 'I'd rather be the child of Thatcher than the son of Brown.'

Cameron said the OBR's report found that unemployment this year would be lower than previously forecast, but had not altered its forecast for unemployment next year (a rate of 8%) and showed a predicted rise in employment 'all the way through the forecast period'.

'We inherited an 8% rate of unemployment and what the OBR says is it will be 6% by the end of the parliament,' he said.

What the OBR report showed 'above all' was that the government's policy of trying to cut the deficit and promote growth at the same time was working, said Cameron.

'I know that you are determined to talk the economy down,' he told Miliband. 'Even you are going to find difficulty in finding in the OBR's report depressing statistics because, generally speaking, what they reported was good news for the UK economy.'

Cameron added that if the Tories had followed Labour's advice since the election 'we would be linked with Portugal, with Ireland ... We wouldn't be standing here today discussing how we are going to get growth to go faster, how we are going to get unemployment to be lower; we would be sitting around discussing how we are going to rescue and bail out Britain.

'This is one of the fastest recoveries in Europe and the point is that if we were following his advice we would not be discussing recovery, we would be discussing meltdown.'

In a nod to the party policy review launched by Miliband over the weekend, Cameron accused the Labour leader of having a 'blank sheet' about the future and told him people were asking when Miliband, who has been party leader since September, was going to start his job.

'He can have a blank sheet about the future, but he can't have a blank sheet of paper about the past. We know we were left a record budget deficit, we remember no more boom and bust, we remember all the things he was responsible for,' Cameron said."