GEORGE Osborne has been told by Labour's Alistair Darling that he would be a fool to start celebrating Britain's economic recovery just yet as the nation's finances are still in difficulty, but is being urged by fellow Cabinet Minister Ken Clarke to "stick to Plan A".

The Chancellor has declared on the back of improved growth figures and upgraded forecasts that Britain is "turning the corner", while Prime Minister David Cameron this week goaded Ed Miliband, telling the Labour leader he had lost the economic argument on austerity and Plan B would have failed.

Earlier this week, Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, warned against complacency - interpreted as a slapdown to Mr Osborne - yet admitted that "we have the beginnings of a recovery story".

Yesterday, his Liberal Democrat colleague Nick Clegg said an economic "dawn appears to be breaking", claiming this would not be happening if it were not for his party being in the Coalition government.

Ahead of his party's annual conference in Glasgow this weekend, the Deputy Prime Minister underlined the need to guard against complacency but said things were "moving in the right direction" helped by his party's decision to link up with the Conservatives.

But Mr Darling sought to inject even more caution, saying: "It would be foolish to break out the flags just yet."

He said: "There has been some encouraging data but, frankly, you can't base any economic forecast on a few weeks' data. If you look at the public finances, they're still in a difficult state."

Meanwhile, Ken Clarke, the former Tory Chancellor, told a Westminster lunch that while the economy was on the up, there would be "bumps in the road" and Mr Osborne was "not being triumphalist".