Osborne warns of 'unexploded tax bombshell'

The Shadow Chancellor today tore into the Government's "give-away" Pre-Budget Report, claiming millions of families would be hit with rising tax and National Insurance bills.

George Osborne said the state of the economy revealed Gordon Brown's claim to have abolished boom and bust as "one of the greatest deceits ever told to the British public".

As a result of the package unveiled by Chancellor Alistair Darling, national debt would double to £1 trillion, Mr Osborne told MPs.

"The Chancellor has just announced the largest amount of borrowing ever undertaken by a British Government in the entire history of this country," he said.

"To pay for it he has placed a huge unexploded tax bombshell timed to go off underneath the future economic recovery."

Mr Darling was "giving £20 billion in give-aways and taking back £40 billion in higher taxes" including a "major rise" in National Insurance which would hit middle Britain.