In a blow to the chancellor, almost half the economists who strongly supported the Conservative party's deficit-reduction proposals in the runup to the 2010 election said it was time for a rethink and urged the Treasury to take advantage of low borrowing costs to boost spending on infrastructure projects.
Labour seized on a report in this week's New Statesman magazine detailing the change of heart of nine of the 20 experts who signed a letter in February 2010 supporting austerity, with only one sticking to an endorsement hailed by Osborne at the time as a "really significant moment in the economic debate".
Rachel Reeves, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: "With a double dip recession made in Downing Street and the economy shrinking, not growing, since the spending review, it's no surprise that even economists who once backed George Osborne are now calling for action to get the economy moving.
"Unlike George Osborne and David Cameron,Best fake oakleys they can see that the evidence now points to the need for a change of course. They know that without growth we can't get the deficit down – George Osborne is already forecast to borrow £150bn more than planned."
Although the economists said they had been right two and a half years ago to urge immediate spending cuts as a way of tackling Britain's record peacetime deficit in the course of one parliament, they said the changed economic circumstances justified growth-creating measures.
Roger Bootle,Fake oakley m frame managing director of Capital Economics, said: "If I were chancellor at this point, I would alter the plan, I would stop the cuts to public investment and I might even seek to increase it. Supply-side reform might be welcome but what we're talking about here is a shortage of demand.
The key thing is to try and get the private sector to spend its money and that may require a bit of government spending to prime the pump."
Tim Besley, economics professor at the London School of Economics and a former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, said: "I would prefer to see government resources used in a targeted way and there may be creative ways of using the government balance sheet. I am particularly keen to have more focus on housing in the near term."
