Brown: I'll help families through economic storm

Gordon Brown vowed today not to let down millions of families facing financial hardship.

In a speech to the Scottish CBI in Glasgow, the Prime Minister was due to strike a more upbeat note than the comments by Chancellor Alistair Darling, which sent the pound plunging amid fears that Britain is facing "arguably the worst" economic downturn in 60 years.

Mr Brown was set to say: "While never complacent about our economic prospects, I am also cautiously optimistic about the long-term resilience and underlying strengths of the British economy because at root our economy today is better placed to weather any global economic storm than it was in the Seventies, Eighties or early Nineties."

He said the Government would "respond with vision, courage and steadfastnessto address the new insecurities-that hard-pressed, hard-working British families face.

"Because while the changes happening all around us are complex, the feelings they evoke are not. In tough times, people are understandably anxious. And they want to know that they will have a fair chance to cope.

"And we will not let them down. We will do what it takes to bring security to families on modest and middle incomes. And we will ensure that no one who is prepared to work hard and adapt to change will lose out as a result of global forces.

"We will act responsibly to prepare people for the inescapable challenges ahead - in the short, medium and long term." He insisted that what Britain was experiencing was a worldwide economic downturn - the "first great financial crisis of the global age with a global credit crunch and global rises in commodity prices."

He added: "The trebling of oil prices and the credit crunch reflect deeper forces at work."

These were "the pressure on resources as four billion people enter the global economy; the rise of Asia as a manufacturing and services power, the restructuring of jobs; the scale, scope and speed of technological change; and then the pressures on the living standards and expectations of communities and families as a result.

"Undoubtedly we face a challenging period in the British economy - particularly given our position at the heart of the world's financial markets."