By Channel 4 News
Exclusive: Ken Clarke and Peter Mandelson do battle over the future of post-recession UK in the first "big beast" debate of the unofficial election campaign.
In a TV first, the former chancellor and current business secretary clashed on a series of issues - from spending to national debt and the prospect of tax hikes - with Jon Snow at one point being forced to "call a truce".
In almost comical scenes, the arch-enemies accused each other of "irrelevance" and "nonsense" as Mandelson insisted that, at root, they were in agreement.
Reacting to this morning's 0.1 per cent growth figure, Mr Mandelson said: "Thankfully the economy now is in positive growth, but the economy remains fragile.
"The recession is behind us. What's important is locking it in, rather than pulling away government support."
The shadow business secretary countered: "We have to turn this into real growth. The problem is it will not grow until we tackle the deficit.
"This is a plateau, mainly because of what the Bank of England has done. The fact we've just barely got into growth shows nothing is really happening yet. Unless we tackle the deficit, growth won't grow."
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