UK economic growth halves ahead of general election

Prime minister uses worse-than-expected GDP figures to warn that a Labour government would put economic recovery at risk

Britain's economic recovery slowed far more sharply than expected in the first quarter, dealing a major blow to the government's track record on the economy with a little more than a week to go until the general election.

The prime minister David Cameron said the recovery could not be taken for granted after the latest official figures showed that the economy grew by just 0.3% between January and March, half the rate of the previous quarter. Economists were expecting growth of 0.5%.

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