Johnson criticises 'economic masochism'

Shadow chancellor Alan Johnson described the government's deficit reduction programme as "economic masochism".

He told Andrew Marr that he agreed with previous chancellor Alistair Darling's plan and attacked the government's policy of withdrawing child benefit from higher rate taxpayers, describing it as "quite perverse".

Speaking ahead of the Browne report on higher education funding, Burnham criticised plans to remove the tuition fee cap.

He also criticised the Liberal Democrats for backtracking on their election promises.