LONDON—The U.K. still faces "tough" economic times, even after moving out of recession, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Saturday. In his weekly podcast, released as polls showed his Labour Party closing the gap on the Conservatives, the prime minister celebrated the news that the U.K. economy had returned to growth at the end of last year but warned that strong, sustainable expansion isn't yet around the corner. "Times have been tough, and these are still tough times," Mr. Brown said. "Return to strong, sustainable global growth is still some way off. So I can reassure you that we are not about to jeopardize Britain's economic future by suddenly pulling the rug from under the recovery." The opposition Conservative Party has accused the government of not mapping out cuts to deal with the U.K.'s record deficit. But, in a softening of the tone of how widespread spending cuts would be in the first financial year of a new government, leader David Cameron and finance spokesman George Osborne suggested in interviews that cuts wouldn't be aggressive.[Read more...]