Has the Chancellor dumped Prudence?

After the statement, comes the PR offensive

Has the famously cautious Chancellor of the Exchequer swapped Prudence for profligacy?

We asked Gordon Brown himself when he joined us live from our Westminster studio at 7.40am this morning.

His pre-budget statement yesterday revealed that government borrowing will be sharply increased - and nearly double the level he predicted last year.

So, is the government spending its way out of a recession, or is it piling up trouble for itself - and for the rest of us?

"We took the right decisions for the British economy," Gordon Brown told us from our Westminster studio. "We have managed to keep the economy growing. It's stable, with low inflation and interest rates.

"It's right to borrow because we want to keep investment growing on health, education and our infrastructure."

click here to watch Breakfast's interview in full with Gordon Brown

To read your reactions to the budget, click here to go to our Your Comments page

We also got reaction from the chancellor's political opponents to the budget.

The Shadow Chancellor, Michael Howard told us: "Gordon Brown got us into this mess because his forecasts were wrong.

"He ought to have come clean and said 'it was no-one's fault but mine."

click here to watch our interview in full with Michael Howard

The Liberal Democrats' Matthew Taylor told us the chancellor should have reined in consumer spending and encouraged greater investment in the British economy.

click here to watch Breakfast's interview in full with Matthew Taylor

So, what do ordinary people make of the budget? We sent our reporter Graham Satchell to Essex to find out:

click here to watch Graham Satchell's report in full

We also asked whether the chancellor's new help with childcare costs would make much difference to working parents.

click here to watch Breakfast's childcare debate

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