Chancellor Ducks Recession Question - Brake

2.43.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 18th Oct 2007

In Parliament today, Tom Brake MP challenged the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, on the risk of a recession in the UK.

Tom Brake asked if the Chancellor was concerned with recent findings in a report by U-Switch which identified that people's disposable incomes were at their lowest level for the last ten years and what chance he thought there was of the UK experiencing a recession.

Tom explained, "Since Labour came to power ten years ago, the Council tax has nearly doubled, homes are 40% over-priced according to the IMF and people are spending approximately 1/5 of their disposable income on servicing debt. The former Head of the Federal Reserve in the US, Alan Greenspan, is suggesting that there is a 50% chance of a recession in the US in the near future and everyone knows that when the US catches cold, the UK gets pneumonia. The Chancellor's response was complacent. He ducked the recession question. He needs to act now, not bury his head in the sand."