Brown attacks Tory cut proposals

Gordon Brown has accused the Conservatives of planning to cut school funding and scrap NHS waiting list guarantees in order to fund tax breaks for millionaires.

Speaking at a rally to support the NHS in Northamptonshire, Mr Brown warned that a Tory victory in the General Election on May 6 would mean losing guarantees of cancer tests within a week, access to GPs at evenings and weekends and operations within 18 weeks.

Mr Brown has said that he is "upping the tempo" of his campaign in the final days, amid reports that Labour strategists believe he must become more visible to the general public if the party is to avoid ending up third in terms of votes behind the Tories and Liberal Democrats.

The Prime Minister pointed to an International Monetary Fund report which said spending should be maintained through 2010 to support the economy as further proof that the Conservatives were wrong to plan £6 billion cuts in public spending this year.

"It is the wrong thing to do for Britain, and I will not hesitate to go round the country every day saying the Conservative Party are now the greatest risk to the economic recovery in this country," he said.

Following David Cameron's indication in a BBC TV interview that Northern Ireland and the North East of England as areas which would face public spending cuts under a Tory administration, Mr Brown insisted that other areas would also lose out if the Conservatives won power.