Darling: Govt taking ‘gamble’ with recovery

Alistair Darling, the former chancellor, comments on the coalition’s economic plans and on his attempted reforms of the banking sector:

“There’s nothing ‘pro-growth’ about taking a huge gamble with the recovery – with people’s jobs. And there’s nothing ‘fair’ or ‘progressive’ about George Osborne’s Budget hitting the poorest in our society hardest. He doesn’t seem to understand that in government it’s decisions, not warm words, that count.

“I think it [the bonus tax] will be a one-off thing because, frankly, the very people you are after here are very good at getting out of these things and… will find all sorts of imaginative ways of avoiding it in the future.