Osborne: We won’t be blown off course

George Osborne, chancellor, comments on GDP figures:

“It’s the worst December for 100 years, people remember that, but we shouldn’t be blown off course by bad weather and we’re not going to be.

“If you look at the December period with the very bad weather, it was the tax rises and the spending review process had not kicked in yet. That’s not an excuse that people can make.

“We’re very clear that to abandon the budget plans would put us back into the financial crisis zone which is where the Labour party left us. We’re not going to do that.”