Coalition cuts under fire as figures reveal stronger UK growth

Government ministers were accused yesterday of being "growth deniers" and of putting the UK's fragile economic recovery at risk, after official figures revealed the economy grew at its fastest rate for nine years between April and June this year.

Political opponents queued up to attack Chancellor George Osborne's budget plans in the wake of an official revision from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that showed the growth rate was better than expected in the second quarter of this year - up from 1.1 to 1.2 per cent.

They said the upward revision showed the government's plans threatened the recovery.

Shadow Scottish secretary Jim Murphy warned: "These figures show that the Tories are taking a massive gamble with growth. George Osborne's emergency Budget was based on a big lie that the economy was worse than thought, when actually we now know the reverse was true."

The SNP's Treasury spokesman Stewart Hosie said: "These figures underline the fragility of the economy, and raise the real threat to recovery from the coalition's cuts agenda, which, by cutting too far and too fast, threatens to drag the country back into recession."

But, according to the Institute of Economic Affairs think-tank, the figures underlined the need for the government's deficit reduction work to continue. Mark Littlewood, its director general said: "The latest ONS figures reveal the absurdity of arguing cuts will trigger a double-dip recession. Although the road to recovery will be a rocky one, the overall trend will be better the more strident the action the government takes."