Brown: Spending spree is no gamble

Gordon Brown today denied that he had taken a massive gamble - and opened the way for more tax rises - in his multi-billion government spending giveaway yesterday.

"When people ask are the plans affordable - yes," he declared. "Have we raised sufficient revenue to meet our plans - yes."

Shares staged a fragile recovery as the markets opened today. They bounced off yesterday's five and a half year lows in early trading, driven higher by a late rally on Wall Street last night.

The FTSE 100 jumped 65.8 points, or two per cent, to 4060.3 in the first halfhour, with dealers braced for another day of erratic price movements.

Mr Brown, in a series of interviews, refused to be drawn on how he would meet the problems if shares and the world economy went into a real nosedive.

Instead the Chancellor, pointing to the turmoil which had sent shares dipping and then recovering in Wall Street and the City, said the spending allocations for schools, hospitals and the rest were long term and carefully grounded on a solid economy rather than "based on a few minutes or a few hours in the Stock Exchange."

The Tories continued to maintain that the £61 billion award to Whitehall departments, more than £90 billion in total government extra spending over the next three years, was unaffordable and would not produce the better schools, hospitals and rail services promised.

The Chancellor, while denying that, is said to have warned Cabinet colleagues privately that he believes the voters have tolerated all the tax rises they can take, at least up to the next election, and that spending ministers must make do with what they have won.

Meanwhile, Tony Blair was braced for a two-hour grilling from senior MPs today amid accusations that he has turned 10 Downing Street into a copy of the White House. He will undergo an unprecedented question and answer session in the Commons where critics are set to claim he is behaving more like a US president than a prime minister.

Mr Blair's inquisitors are the 35 chairmen-of Commons select committees and include some of the most acid Labour critics of his policies, including Gwynneth Dunwoody, who heads the Transport Committee.

Downing Street hopes the session will counter complaints that the premier is less accountable to Parliament than any of his predecessors and said there would be no holds barred when MPs put their questions.

But Conservatives said that was nonsense, pointing out that Number 10 had demanded to be given a list of all the subject areas which Mr Blair would be grilled about in advance.

The Prime Minister will sit in front of a semi-circular table facing the MPs, who are members of the umbrella Liaison Committee.

Chairman Alan Williams has warned members their questions must not stray outside the list of prepared subject areas handed to Number 10 - but that will probably not stop some from pressing him on explosive political issues, including his relationship with President Bush and the possibility of a war with Iraq.

Mr Blair will be pressed on his style of governing, where he gets his advice from and on the rapid expansion of Number 10 during his five years in office.