Ed Balls MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, commenting on the IFS Green Budget said:

“This report shows that, if the Tories win the election, Britain will face the biggest spending cuts of any major advanced economy.

"Instead of this extreme approach, which will put our vital public services at risk, we need a balanced and fair way to get the deficit down while securing the future of our NHS.

"Labour will make sensible spending cuts in non-protected areas, but we will also reverse David Cameron’s £3 billion tax cut for the top one per cent of earners. And most of all, Labour’s economic plan will ensure we earn our way to rising living standards for all, not just a few. That’s how we will cut the deficit every year as we balance the books and get the national debt falling as soon as possible in the next Parliament.

"George Osborne’s failure to boost productivity and wages is the reason why his plan has not only failed working people but failed on the deficit too."