We were at the stage where in a very short period of time, one of the world's biggest banks would have to shut the door and switch off the electricity.

Tory plans to cut 'further and faster' would wreck recovery and roll back Labour's many successes.

The economic times we are facing... are arguably the worst they've been in 60 years. And I think it's going to be more profound and long-lasting than people thought.

The global economy is spluttering back into life. The Tories would have left it to choke to death.

On top of that, we have a healthy and stable economy and an end to the boom and bust that characterised the Tory years.

The key thing that went wrong was that a culture was allowed to develop where the relationship between what people did and what they got went way out of alignment, especially at the top end.

As I said, there are two approaches-first, a strong economy, stability and helping families or, secondly, the Tory cuts, the undermining of stability, and a return to the boom and bust of the 1990s.