Our children will still be paying for 'irresponsible' debts, claims Osborne

The Shadow Chancellor lambasted Labour's "weak and irresponsible" borrowing plans, claiming they put Britain's economy at risk.

He sought to put clear dividing lines between the Tories and the Government on how to deal with the recession, warning Labour's "spending splurge" would lead to huge debt and higher taxes in the future.

"There is the choice of spending without restraint and borrowing without limit the choice Gordon Brown seems to be making. It is a weak and irresponsible choice," he said.

"It saddles this generation and the next with a burden of debt that could take a decade or more to pay off."

In a speech at the London School of Economics, Mr Osborne said: "If you don't keep control of public finances, you risk saddling your economy with so much debt that it stifles the recovery for many years to come. That is not a rock of stability. It is more like a ball and chain."

He warned that higher borrowing could also result in another Labour "tax con" like the 10p tax change that could add as much as 4p to the cost of income tax.

"That's not just a tax bombshell, it's a cruise missile aimed at the heart of recovery," he said.

He raised the spectre of money markets refusing to lend the UK cash requested by the Treasury, saying: "In extremis, it can mean you lose the confidence of the international markets."

The Shadow Chancellor said the Tories would put in place a "credible medium-term strategy" for restoring the public finances to balance, but gave no details.

Mr Osborne's remarks follow a warning today that borrowing was likely to be higher in the first year of this recession than under the Tories. Even excluding the cost of nationalising Northern Rock, public sector net debt is due to reach 39.7 per cent of GDP this year considerably higher than the low of 26.2 per cent recorded by the Tories in 1990.