Recession worst for century - Balls

12 April 2012

The economic downturn will be worse than the Great Depression and could spark a 1930s-style resurgence of the Far Right, a Cabinet minister has warned.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls said the current crisis was "the most serious global recession for over 100 years", and its effects would be felt for a decade and a half.

The comments - the gloomiest yet from a senior member of the Government - came in a speech to activists in Yorkshire at the weekend.

"The economy is going to define our politics in this region and in Britain in the next five years, the next 10 years and even the next 15 years," Mr Balls said.

"These are seismic events that are going to change the political landscape. I think this is a financial crisis more extreme and more serious than that of the 1930s and we all remember how the politics of that era were shaped by the economy."

The Normanton MP - regarded as Gordon Brown's closest ally - continued: "We are now seeing the realities of globalisation, though at a speed, paces and ferocity which none of us have seen before. The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for, I'm sure, over 100 years as it will turn out."

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said the remarks, reported in the Yorkshire Post, contradicted Treasury forecasts that the economy will be back on track by the second half of this year. "This is a very worrying admission from a Cabinet Minister," he said. "We are being told not only that we are facing the worst recession in 100 years, but that it will last for over a decade, far longer than Treasury forecasts predict."

A spokesman for Mr Balls insisted that the Prime Minister and Chancellor Alistair Darling had highlighted the "unprecedented speed and ferocity" of the crisis "time and time again".

"The unprecedented global nature of this crisis and its impact on the global financial sector is affecting every single economy in the world," the spokesman said.

"The Bank of England agrees with this analysis. As the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England Charlie Bean said in October, 'This is a once in a lifetime crisis, and possibly the largest financial crisis of its kind in human history'."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in