UK's economy poised to recover far more quickly: Brown

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is "optimistic" about the UK's economy growing at a decent rate in the next twelve months, even as he criticised the opposition for demanding cuts in public spending to check recession.

Describing opposition Tories as pessimists, Brown said "I am optimistic about the future" and the country would achieve a strong growth over the next 12 months.

"If you have a growth policy for Britain, get unemployment down, get the economy moving forward, then Britain can have up-growth," he said.

Brown said "I think people have moved closer to our view that Britain is capable of coming back to growth at a higher rate next year than people were originally assuming, and higher rates in the future.

"We've said that the economy will grow by one and a half per cent next year and more people are moving towards our position as a result of what they've seen in the economy over the last few months."

David Cameron's conservatives are "pessimists" whose plans for the biggest cuts in public spending for 30 years would prolong the recession, the prime minister claimed.

Speaking publicly for the first time since Cameron's speech at the Conservative party conference, which painted a grim picture of Britain's economic future, Brown said introducing a new age of austerity would spell disaster for the economy and destroy the health and education services.