Politics live blog Friday 28 January

Andrew Sparrow with live coverage as the prime minister outlines government's economic policy from Davos

9.40am: Cameron says the first priority is to kill off "the spectre of massive sovereign debts".

Those who argue that dealing with our deficit and promoting growth are somehow alternatives are wrong.
You cannot put off the first in order to promote the second. Average government debt in the EU is almost 8% of GDP.
Some countries are again borrowing five, six or seven per cent of GDP again this year.
The figure for the UK is more than 10%. This is clearly unsustainable and action cannot be put off.

9.38am: Cameron is speaking now. He says the growth figures in the UK were "disappointing". But he always said the recovery was going to be "choppy", he says.

The question is: how do we get growth going?

Pessimists says Europe will always have slow growth. They make four arguments, Cameron says.

One we in Europe are incapable of solving our debt and deficit problems.

Two we're unable to compete with dynamic economies because we'll always be over-burdened with regulation and bureaucracy.

Three we're hardwired to be consumers and not producers.

And four we're attached to liberal values that are leaving us far behind the juggernaut of authoritarian capitalism.

Cameron says he wants to make the case for optimism.

We can overcome these problems but we do need a change of direction. Huge deficits don't just fall out of the sky.

9.35am: David Cameron is about to deliver his economy speech from Davos. As Patrick Wintour reports in the Guardian today, he is going to warn that Britain's recovery will be slow.


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