The Tories accused the Chancellor of being "reckless" with the public finances today after figures showed government borrowing had more than doubled in the past year.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne hit out after Office for National Statistics revealed net borrowing stood at £19.1 billion between April and July - up from £8.4 billion last year. In further evidence of the economic slowdown, there was sluggish growth in corporation and income tax receipts.

The Treasury insisted public finances had improved quarter-on-quarter in July, with the public sector paying back a net £4.8 billion. The figure was better than some City expectations but lower than last year's £6.4 billion.

Mr Osborne, who today said a Tory government would cut taxes for the lower paid, called the figures "dreadful" and said borrowing was "out of control". "One test of a fair society is that we do not leave our children to pay our debts, and this fiscal irresponsibility is not just reckless, it is deeply unfair on future generations. Gordon Brown has failed to put aside money for a rainy day during the good years, and taxpayers will bear the price," he said.

In July, traditionally a strong month for tax receipts, net debt as a proportion of GDP - which must not exceed 40 per cent under the Government's sustainable investment rule - jumped to 37.2 per cent, compared with 36.1 per cent in the same month last year.

The Government's budget ran a surplus of £6.6 billion in July, which was also £2 billion below last year.

There was sluggish growth in tax receipts - £1.4 billion higher than a year earlier - lagging behind spending, which was up £3.9 billion to £44.5 billion for the month. Today's figures increase the likelihood that Mr Darling will change the Treasury's fiscal rules to allow greater debt over the next economic cycle. Labour hopes the move will avert the need to put up taxes or cut spending even more in the downturn.

The Tories claimed that if borrowing were to continue at the current rate then total borrowing this financial year could be £80 billion - almost twice the £43 billion that the Government forecast in Budget 2008. The Treasury disputed the claim, saying tax receipts traditionally-became stronger in the second-half of the year. But with the slowdown expected to get worse, critics warn usual assumptions may not apply.

In a speech to the Demos think-tank, Mr Osborne declared that he wanted to see "not just lower taxes but fairer taxes" and said the least well-off were being hit by punishing rates of tax.

Mr Osborne said: "We understand that tax can undermine fair rewards for effort, so we want to see not just lower taxes but fairer taxes too. The public outcry against the 10p tax rate said something very interesting about the British people's sense of fairness.

"Even those on middle incomes who found themselves better off from the tax changes felt it was profoundly unfair. Similarly unfair, are the extremely high marginal tax rates faced by those on low incomes. According to the DWP, when someone on £100 a week increases their income, for every pound of extra pay, they take home just 6p."

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