Osborne pledges to face ‘hard choices’

BRITAIN cannot “run away from hard choices” on the economy, George Osborne has warned as fears grow the nation is heading towards an unprecedented triple-dip recession.

With the March Budget approaching, pressure is mounting on the Chancellor to change tack and boost the economy but he was adamant he would hold firm to the austerity programme, now due to last until 2018.

“Britain faces a difficult economic situation,” he declared. “Wehave got problems at home, built up by this unbalanced economy, problems in our financial sector and the debts we have built up and, frankly, we have got problems abroad with many of our export markets deep in recession in Europe.”

Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist, urged Mr Osborne to “take stock” in his Spring Budget when a move to a slower fiscal consolidation “may well be appropriate”.

London Mayor Boris Johnson has urged his Tory colleague to “junk the rhetoric of austerity” to restore confidence in the economy.

Yet the Chancellor argued the UK was putting in place short-term measures such as investment in apprenticeships, pointing out how unemployment was now falling.

“But we have also got to do the things that will help tomorrow and in the future, and high-speed rail is part of an economic regeneration package,” he said.