Britain attacks EU budget plans

The UK Government has attacked plans for an inflation-busting rise in EU spending as “completely unrealistic” in the midst of a recession which has forced national austerity measures across Europe.

The controversial proposal from Brussels comes just days after British Prime Minister David Cameron hosted Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at Downing Street and told him the hard-pressed public would not understand anything above an increase in line with inflation – a real-terms freeze.