Labour leader seized on figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility predicting a contraction for the UK economy
Ed Miliband said George Osborne's fuel duty cut in Wednesday's budget amounted to "Del Boy economics", coming at the same time as a 3p increase in VAT.
In his Commons response, the Labour leader seized on figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility predicting a contraction for the UK economy: "What is the chancellor's singular achievement? To deliver a budget for growth that downgrades the growth forecast."
"Every time he comes to this house, growth is downgraded," Miliband said. "One fact says it all and he couldn't bring himself to say it: growth down last year, this year and next year. It's the same old Tories – it's hurting but it isn't working."
Labour drew attention to work published the morning of the budget by the OBR which they said suggested the reduced growth would mean unemployment could go up every year by "up to 200,000". The opposition believes the government's decision to index direct taxes by CPI (the consumer prices index) from April 2012 amounts to a tax rise.
Labour also argued that VAT on fuel was still going up and so, after the 1p cut, there would still be a 2p rise in the price of a litre of fuel. The shadow business secretary, John Denham, said that such a large change to oil companies "to produce such a small effect on the price of fuel" was not necessarily a good idea.
In a reference to the chancellor's winter skiing holiday, Miliband said: "They had snow in Germany, a freeze in France but both their economies grew ... It's not the wrong type of snow, it's the wrong type of chancellor." He also attacked the Lib Dem leader, calling him an "accomplice" to the Tory plans. "It is no wonder nobody wants to share a platform with him."
Liberal Democrat MPs who spoke in the debate were almost unanimously in support of the budget – reminding the house the increase in the personal tax allowance was a Lib Dem pledge.
The Conservative backbencher Zac Goldsmith was critical of the government's movement only to allow the green investment bank to borrow from 2015. He said the government had "reduced the [UK's] prospects of being a world leader in green technology".
He added: "We will be missing out on one of the greatest economic opportunities of all time."