The British government will not ease up on its austerity efforts despite signs of a solid economic recovery, the chancellor of the exchequer, Mr Gordon Brown, said yesterday.

"I have told my Cabinet colleagues we are not going to lurch into the irresponsible spending commitments of previous Conservative and Labour governments," Mr Brown said.

"That means that the debate over the next few months should be about investment, how we invest in our new technologies and our new skills, it should be about increasing productivity, it should in every area be about strengthening the economy so we can have sustainable growth and we don't lurch back into the stop-go of the past," he said.

"We are not going to make the mistakes that the Liberal party and Conservative Party are making in only talking about how you divide up the cake," he said.

Mr Brown has been under growing pressure from trade unions in Britain and some members of government to take advantage of the nascent economic recovery to increase spending on areas like health and education, where the Labour Party has failed to live up to its promises.

Current forecasts show the British economy growing by 3 per cent next year, while unemployment has fallen to a 19-year low of 4.2 per cent and inflation is at its weakest level in 36 years.