Unemployment could yet hit four million as the recession misery continues, Vince Cable has warned.
The Liberal Democrat economic affairs spokesman predicted that the jobless toll could be set to more than double from its current level of just under two million.
While there have been predictions of a return to the three million unemployed last seen under the Conservatives, Mr Cable suggested the current recession could be far more painful than that.
In his keynote speech to the Lib Dems' spring conference in Harrogate, Mr Cable said the coming months would bring further "unremitting" misery, with factory closures, job losses and home repossessions.
He forecast hundreds of thousands of university-leavers - possibly half of all new graduates - would this year join the dole queue along with "well over a million" workers who would lose their jobs.
Mr Cable, who has won plaudits for his often prescient commentary on the financial crisis, said: "The economic position of the country is dire. It is deteriorating fast."
He accused the Tories of revelling in the crisis because it could erase memories of recessions when they were in office.
He went on: "Their golden legacy of three million unemployed could yet become Labour's platinum legacy of four million unemployed."
Mr Cable criticised the Government's "uncertain and inadequate" response to the banking crisis, arguing that the move to take control of Lloyds was well overdue.
"We argued from the outset that we cannot have the taxpayer taking all the risks and losses and the banks continuing to be run by bankers in their own interests or hoarding capital," he said. "Lloyds/HBOS has now joined the list of effectively nationalised banks. But only after prolonged and damaging dithering."
