Last week as leaders of the G20 countries reached cautious agreement on tackling the global financial crisis, thousands more jobs were lost across the country.

This was a positive summit, focussed on multi-national issues including funding the IMF. The Government now urgently needs to come back down to earth to deal with economic issues back home.

Gordon Brown vowed the G20 package would shorten the recession and save jobs, but the Government could have done much more domestically were it not weighed down with the anchor of debt that hangs around its neck.

Focus will turn now to the Budget a fortnight on Wednesday. This should be an opportunity to help ordinary families, but room for manoeuvre is limited by the desperate state of the public finances.

Whatever boost remains from Brown's G20 bounce is likely to be short-lived, with the inevitable upward revision of Government borrowing forecasts and ditching the Chancellor's forecast that the recession will end in June.

Last week the former Chief Economist of the IMF warned that Britain's economy is in 'big trouble' and might need an international bail-out. Plans to double the country's national debt and then increase taxes on ordinary families to pay off the interest will be a severe drag on an eventual recovery.

Whilst welcoming the international measures announced at the G20, I want to see the focus now on helping British families and businesses suffering from the recession. The Government must act to implement our National Loan Guarantee Scheme to get credit flowing to keep sound businesses trading and people in jobs.