Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, on Tuesday issued a fresh call for public sector pay restraint, saying he is calling on Whitehall departments to base all public pay settlements next year on a 2 per cent target, below the 2.5 per cent average pay rise achieved in 2006.

Writing in the Financial Times, in his first public comments since the summer, Mr Brown gives an upbeat assessment of UK growth, declaring that the country’s economic performance “has defied the pessimists once again”.