'Del Boy' Osborne fiddles his figures

Mr Osborne claimed in his Autumn Statement that the deficit was not rising - but didn't mention that he included around £3.5 billion revenue expected from the sale of 4G mobile phone spectrum, which hasn't happened yet.

Shadow Commons leader Angela Eagle said the inclusion of the expected 4G windfall was an attempt by Mr Osborne to "hide his failure."

The Chancellor was forced to deny he fiddled the figures and played down fears that the UK's credit rating could be downgraded.

But international credit ratings agency Fitch said Britain risked losing its AAA rating.

And Ms Eagle, a former Treasury minister, told the Commons it was "quite clear that the Chancellor's economic failure has put his prized triple-A rating at risk."

She said: "today we found out the full scale of the government's economic failure. The Prime Minister promised to balance the books by 2015. He has broken that promise.

"The Chancellor promised to cut borrowing, but borrowing and debt figures have been revised up this year and for future years.

"The government promised to grow the economy but today the OBR said the economy would contract this year.

"The part-time Chancellor might try 4G Del Boy economics to hide his failure but he can't hide the truth.

"According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, this is the worst economic outlook since the 1920s. This is the consequence of a government that has got all the big decisions wrong."

Commons Leader Andrew Lansley retorted: "I heard nothing about how the Labour Party would control borrowing. Where would the deficit reduction plan from the Labour Party come from?"

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said Mr Osborne's "debt supertanker" was as rudderless as ever.

"In the last two years, our economy has grown by 0.6 per cent only, compared with 3.6 per cent in Germany, 4.1 per cent in America.

"He's choked off the recovery and the borrowing's going up, the debt's gone up. He said he'd meet his targets.

"He's failed," said Mr Balls.