Alistair Darling has defended his budget deficit plan The government's plans for reducing the budget deficit are not ambitious enough - according to a European Commission report to be published on Wednesday.The report warns that the UK is not on course to cut its deficit in line with EU rules by a deadline of 2015. Those rules say deficits must be below 3% of GDP, but the UK's is expected to hit £178bn - 12.6% of GDP - this year. Ministers insist their plans to halve the deficit in four years are less likely to halt the economic recovery. Those plans, announced in the pre-Budget report, would see the UK's deficit reduced to 4.7% by 2015 - missing the EU target outlined by finance ministers last year. Fragile recoveryShadow chancellor George Osborne called the report "a heavy blow for Gordon Brown's credibility". But in the run-up to next week's Budget, Chancellor Alistair Darling, defended the government's approach to the deficit, arguing that cutting it too quickly by reducing government spending would risk harming the UK's emergence from recession.[Read more...]