Miliband accuses Cameron of ‘deceit’ over economy

Appearing alongside his Shadow Chancellor, Alan Johnson, at his first news conference of 2011, Mr Miliband refuted the Coalition Government’s claims that the economic crisis was caused by overspending under the previous Labour administration.

He said the Coalition had taken “the wrong judgements about the future” in building an economic policy on spending cuts rather than support for growth.

“They are practising a deceit about the past to justify an ideological judgement about the future.” Ed Miliband on David Cameron and George Osborne

Asked directly whether he thought that the Prime Minister and his Chancellor, George Osborne, were ‘liars’ he replied: “My mother taught me never to call people liars. They are practising a deceit about the past to justify an ideological judgement about the future.”

Mr Miliband called on the Prime Minister to revisit “his entire economic strategy”.

FactCheck: Who's deceiving who on the deficit?

And – as the banks prepare to pay out an estimated £7 billion in annual bonuses – the Labour leader also called for the tax on such handouts to be extended for another year.

He said it was “unfair” that the bonus tax would raise less than half that sum when families are facing increases in taxes like VAT and suggested that extending the tax on bonuses for a second year would be more responsible.

But Mr Miliband would not be drawn on what Labour would do about the VAT rate – now 20 per cent – making the plea that in opposition Labour’s role was to restore faith in politics and “not to make promises that we can’t keep”.

Quizzed about Alan Johnson’s credibility as a Shadow Chancellor, he said that what mattered were the big things in politics, adding: “I’ll take Alan Johnson’s judgement over George Osborne’s any day of the week.”

Meanwhile, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said this morning that he accepted that “the sky-high numbers that are bandied about in the City of London seem to come from a parallel universe to many people”. He called for the City to use extra sensitivity and transparency in the way it rewarded its high-flyers.