Slump 'will get worse if we don't act now'

GORDON BROWN warned today that the recession will "get worse rather than better" if the Government fails to kick-start the economy with next week's Pre-Budget Report.

In a wide-ranging interview ahead of Monday's statement by the Chancellor, the Prime Minister repeatedly stressed that he was "angry" at American banks for causing the credit crunch.

Mr Brown admitted he had made mistakes in office but refused to say that he had blundered in pledging no more boom and bust.

Instead, he attacked Tory policies. He said: "This is a situation where if you don't act now, and fiscal action is what we are talking about, whether it is public investment or whether it is in taxation, we will pay for it later.

"You have got to act now so that we avoid a worse problem," he added. "My father used to say 'a stitch in time saves nine' and I think that's an important message. If you do not take action now, then this will get worse rather than better."

The message is likely to be a key feature of Labour's attack on the Conservatives in Monday's pre-Budget report as David Cameron has declared that he opposes extra borrowing and spending to get Britain out of a recession.

Interviewed on Radio 2's Jeremy Vine Show, Mr Brown said the current downturn was different from the "bust" of the Tory years in the Nineties. "The boom and bust we were talking about then was 15 per cent interest rates - and actually at one point interest rates went to 18 per cent."

Mr Brown said he had never considered quitting 10 Downing Street, even when polls showed he was unpopular with the public and Labour trailed the Tories by up to 28 points.

Earlier he upped the stakes in the battle to make banks increase lending by refusing to rule out full-scale nationalisation. His official spokesman twice declined to quash the idea that the State could take over the banks.