What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The Tories are now borrowing more than 'reckless' Labour would have under Ed Balls' 2015 election plan, according to Britain's foremost economic experts.

In its analysis of Philip Hammond 's Autumn Statement, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) revealed borrowing will be £16 billion higher in 2018-19 than Labour's plan.

IFS research economist Thomas Pope said: "This really is a much weaker fiscal position than we anticipated at 2015 election"

He said the increase in borrowing was from a combination of worse than expected economic forecasts and an increase in spending on infrastructure projects.

And he likened Mr Hammond's focus on housing, telecoms, roads and reasearch and development to former Labour Chancellor Alexander Darling's plan for the economy.

IFS chief Paul Johnson added the predicted cost of Brexit at £60 billion over five years was "modestly upbeat" - suggesting it could be much worse.

But the respected financial experts said the nation's public debt has been higher than this before - during World War II and the Napoleonic wars.

Labour's plans to pull Britain out of the economic crisis through investment rather than cuts has long been a focus of Tory attacks.

The 2015 Conservative manifesto read: "Failing to control our debt would be more than an economic failing, it would be a moral failing - leaving our children and grandchildren with debts that could never hope to repay."

And in a 2008 column for the Daily Telegraph, Mr Hammond tore into the "reckless borrowing" of Gordon Brown's Labour party before praising the Office For Budget Responsibility - which yesterday laid bare the reality of the financial situation - in the next sentence.

He wrote: "We need a responsible economy – not more of the same reckless borrowing we have seen under Labour.

"That is why we have proposed an Office for Budget Responsibility, which will hold the Government to account over public spending, and a new Debt Responsibility Mechanism to allow the Bank of England to resume responsibility for managing the credit cycle."