Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister, was left fuming on Friday after Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, denounced his flagship VAT-cutting plan and gave a picture of a Britain where industry was finished and the banks lay “close to ruin”.

Mr Sarkozy’s comments are a political gift to David Cameron, the opposition Conservative leader, and deal a blow to Mr Brown’s efforts to cement a common European position on how to fight the recession ahead of a G20 summit of world leaders in London in April.