Britain rejects EU calls for more cuts

"It's necessary to get rid of the structural deficit because if you don't so that interest rates will go up, we won't have any economic recovery, you will have rising unemployment," he told the same radio programme.

Byrne said such spending cuts would be a disaster for public services.

"You would have to take 20 billion pounds of public spending out by 2014-15, that's about half the education budget. We think that halving the deficit over four years is the right approach," he said.

"We think that is not reckless. It's not painless either."

(Reporting by Michael Holden and Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Susan Fenton)