LONDON (AFX) - Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown opened the campaign for the June 7 election with a pledge that Labour would aim for full employment should it win a second term.
In the government's first major speech since Prime Minister Tony Blair named polling day yesterday, Brown trumpeted Labour's economic performance and promised to make social spending a priority in the likely event that Labour is re-elected.
He attacked as "irresponsible" the Conservative Party's promised rolling programme of tax cuts, saying it would put the country's economic stability at risk.
Brown said economic stability would be at the heart of a second Labour government's programme.
Unlike Blair yesterday, the chancellor made no mention, implicit or otherwise, of the question of the UK's participation in the euro. The economy has to satisfy Brown's five tests before the government will proceed with a referendum on the contentious issue.