**The leaders of Britain’s three biggest parties have gone head-to-head over the economy in the final TV debate before next week’s general election.**Gordon Brown branded Conservative plans to axe child tax credits for better off families “unfair and immoral”.
Tory leader David Cameron said Mr Brown had got his facts wrong and “should be ashamed of what he is doing”.
Nick Clegg said Britain’s tax system was “grotesquely unfair” and vowed that the Lib Dems would fix it.
Mr Brown is under pressure to salvage Labour’s campaign after he had to apologise to a voter he was recorded as calling “bigoted” on Wednesday, after she questioned him about immigration.
In his opening statement, he said that “yesterday” had showed that as prime minister he did not always “get it right” but he did “know how to run the economy in good times and bad”.
Asked a question about whether politicians were ignoring voters’ concerns about immigration, Nick Clegg and David Cameron both opted to avoid attacking Mr Brown directly over his gaffe.
‘Recovery risk’
They concentrated instead on a debate about the Lib Dem policy of earned citizenship, which both Mr Brown and Mr Cameron have branded an “amnesty” for illegal immigrants.
This sparked one of the liveliest clashes of the night, with Mr Clegg telling his two rivals it was time to “get real” about immigration and attacking Mr Cameron for misleading people about Lib Dem policy, saying: “Every time you talk about our policy it is wrong.”
Mr Brown said both of their policies were wrong, saying Mr Cameron’s plan for an annual cap on immigration was dishonest as it did not include the EU.
Mr Cameron said the Conservatives were the only party that would get a proper grip on immigration.
The Tory leader frequently clashed with Mr Brown over economic policy, with Mr Brown constantly bringing up the Conservatives’ inheritance tax plans and child tax credits, claiming Mr Cameron was planning a "coalition of cuts with Mr Clegg.
On welfare reform, Mr Brown said the Conservatives in the 1980s had left a “wasted generation” out of work.
Mr Cameron said he was was not sure what country Gordon Brown thought he was prime minister of, saying the Labour leader had caused “record youth unemployment,” as Mr Brown shook his head in disagreement.
The Lib Dems were the only party with a fully costed plan to get people off benefits and back into work, said Mr Clegg.
In the first skirmish of the debate, Mr Cameron had locked horns with Mr Brown over the timing of cuts - with Mr Brown saying “David, you have just got it wrong” on plans to slash £6bn from public spending next year.
“Take money out of the economy now for ideological reasons and you put the recovery at risk,” he told the Tory leader.
Mr Cameron hit back by saying the government could save one out of every £100, characterising Mr Brown’s plan as “let me go on wasting your money so I can put up your taxes next year”.
The leaders also clashed on banking regulation, how to boost Britain’s manufacturing industry and the creation of more “green jobs”. they also debated housing policy and welfare reform.
Mr Cameron went on the offensive over the euro, saying that up until a year ago Nick Clegg was advocating Britain’s entry into the single European currency, which the Tory leader said he would never do, telling the audience: “Let’s stay out of the euro, let’s keep our own currency.”
Mr Clegg said Mr Cameron was being “desperate” with this line of attack and said he would only advocate euro entry “if the economic conditions are right” and then only after a referendum.
The Liberal Democrats gained an average of 10% in the polls after the first televised prime ministerial debate in British political history, two weeks ago.
The polls suggested there was no clear winner from the second debate last week, on foreign affairs.
‘Austerity’
In the run up to Thursday’s debate, Mr Cameron repeated his insistence that his party had gone further than any other opposition in history in setting out detailed spending plans amid criticism by the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank that the three main parties had failed to come clean about the scale of cuts or tax increases that will be needed after 6 May.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party say more economists have signed a letter opposing Conservative plans to find an extra £6bn cuts this year - bringing the total to 108.
They say it could tip the economy back into recession. But the Tories say their plans are backed by more than 1,000 businesses and would allow them to avoid the bulk of Labour’s planned National Insurance rise next year.
US economist David Hale told Australian television that Bank of England Governor Mervyn King had told him “whoever wins this election will be out of power for a whole generation because of how tough the fiscal austerity will have to be”.
BBC economics correspondent Hugh Pym said the Bank of England said Mr King met Mr Hale in March - not last week as the report implied - and spoke to many economists but conversations were private.
On Wednesday, the Scottish National Party failed in a legal bid to stop the debate being broadcast in Scotland, if they were not represented. SNP leader Alex Salmond told the BBC it was “unfair to the SNP” and “unfair for Scotland”.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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