Osborne Touts End to Austerity to Break Election Impasse

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne twinned his Conservative Party’s custody of a broadening U.K. economic recovery with a sprinkling of incentives for voters as he sought to break a campaign deadlock going into the May 7 general election.

Fifty days before a vote that polls suggest will yield no overall majority, Osborne unveiled higher economic growth and lower deficit and unemployment forecasts along with help for the North Sea oil industry and a freeze on fuel duty in a push for a Tory victory over the main opposition Labour Party.