The current economic downturn will be worse than the Great Depression, Gordon Brown's closest ally has warned.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls said the crisis was "the most serious global recession for over 100 years", and its effects would be felt for a decade-and-a-half.
He also raised fears that it could spark a 1930s-style resurgence of the far-right.
The comments - easily the gloomiest yet from a senior member of the Government - came in a speech to Labour activists in Yorkshire at the weekend.
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"We are now seeing the realities of globalisation, though at a speed, pace and ferocity which none of us have seen before," Mr Balls said.
"The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for, I'm sure, over 100 years as it will turn out."
