LONDON, Sept 13: Britain still faces two difficult economic years, but government talk of facing the greatest challenge in 60 years is wide of the mark, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Vince Cable told Reuters in an interview.

“There is no way now that the government can head off a serious slowdown in the economy,” he said. “It’s too late.”

Cable, a former economist who is also the opposition party’s shadow chancellor, said Gordon Brown’s Labour government had until recently been in a “total state of denial” on the economy.

“We need a very clear, honest statement of where we are, and what government can do and what it can’t do.”

A slew of negative data in recent weeks has shown Britain edging its way towards recession with inflation at its highest for more than a decade.

But Cable said Chancellor Alistair Darling had gone too far in saying in a recent interview that the economic challenges facing the world were the greatest in 60 years.

“Things are bad but not that bad. We are probably going to have a couple of very sticky years.

Cable, 65, was speaking as his party prepares for five days of debate at its autumn conference in Bournemouth.

Last year’s meeting coincided with the start of the funding crisis at Northern Rock as the credit crunch reached British shores, pricking long-running bubble in house prices.—Reuters