Osborne To Defend Strategy As Unemployment Hits 15-Year High

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will be forced to defend his economic strategy today after unemployment rose to its highest rate for 15 years.

Ed Balls, Treasury spokesman for the opposition Labour Party, will use a debate in Parliament in London to renew his call for emergency tax cuts to spur the recovery. Unemployment jumped to 8.1 percent in the three months through August, the highest since 1996, government figures showed today.

“With families feeling the squeeze, no growth in our economy since last autumn and unemployment rising again, it’s clear that Britain now faces a real jobs and growth crisis,” Balls’s deputy, Rachel Reeves, said in e-mailed comments today.

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