Business chiefs quick to give ‘risky’ Darling a thumbs down

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CBI director general Richard Lambert said the Government failed to convince with its plans to drag the country out of the red.

He said: "The key question was whether it set out a credible path for restoring the public finances to health. The CBI's judgment must be that it does not. By pushing out the horizon for balancing the books as far as 2018 the Government is running too much of a risk."

Unions also stopped short of hailing the blueprint. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber welcomed support for the jobless and a fairer tax system, but added: "It does not bring the same vigour to getting the real economy right as the Government showed in dealing with the banking collapse." The National Pensioners Convention branded the 2.5 per cent state pension increase as "virtually worthless".

Baroness Valentine, chief executive of business group London First, attacked the new 50 per cent tax rate. She said: "Two thirds of what it costs to employ a company director in London will go not to him or her but straight to the taxman."