Smash hit

He said: “What’s happened over the last ten years is that Labour has broken our economy - and we must fix it.

“Four years ago he was telling the City: ’I want us to do even more to encourage the risk takers’. Two years ago, he was dismissing calls for what he called a ’regulatory crackdown’ on the City.

“And only last year, he was celebrating what he called a ’golden age for the City of London’. Now he’s describing that very same time as an ’Age of Irresponsibility’.

“Does Gordon Brown really think he’s going to get away with that? He cannot hide from his mistakes; he cannot hide from the truth.”

He rejected Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman’s Commons accusation that his party was talking down the economy, accusing her and other ministers of trying to “close down debate, to shut people’s eye, to hide the truth to mask your failures”.

“I will never pull my punches in explaining how this Government has brought Britain down.”

Mr Cameron repeated promises to freeze council tax, reform insolvency law and stop pensioners being forced to buy retirement annuities as he again rejected calls for him to give up-front tax cut pledges.

And he said the Opposition would announce “many more ways to help families through the downturn” in the comings days and weeks.

Insisting that the recent part-nationalisations did not spell a new dominance for left-of-centre policies, he said: “We shouldn’t replace the free-market - we’ve got to repair it.

“The centre right understands that society and the economy are both made up of the same thing: people.

“You need to get the incentives right, get the framework right, and give people responsibility to do the right thing. You also need people to know that they will be punished if they do the wrong thing.

“That means discipline in opposition. No spending commitments which will never be delivered. No promises of upfront, unfunded tax cuts which will never happen.

“Instead, responsibly focusing on what can - and cannot - be done.”

The Tory leader also said the economy had to be made “balanced and resilient”.

“Over the past decade, 70% of our economic growth has come from just three things: from housing - which is now declining; from the financial sector - now in turmoil; and from government spending - now slowing.

“And in addition, much of the growth has been driven by immigration - an unsustainable basis when you consider the impact on public services and our national infrastructure.

“We have to broaden our economic base to include more science, more hi-tech services, more green technologies, more engineering and more high-value manufacturing, drawing upon a much wider range of industries, markets, people, towns and cities,” he said.

“We need to decentralise our economy so the south doesn’t overheat and instead every part of our country plays a significant part in our growth.”

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