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Osborne capitalises on Portugal bail-out
Business digest: Chancellor says bail-out is evidence that risk to UK is ‘very real’
Chancellor George Osborne has pointed to Portugal's economic collapse as clear evidence of why his raft of budget cuts are necessary for Britain to avoid a similar fate.
Speaking at the British Chambers of Commerce conference, Osborne said the "risks are not imaginary – they are very, very real", and accused those opposing his cuts of "playing Russian roulette with Britain's national sovereignty".
Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls called the speech "a desperate piece of scaremongering".
Portugal this week requested an EU bail-out to the value of about £79bn after months of speculation that it was unable to handle its huge deficit.
Read a full report at the Guardian. ·
