In a speech given at the Bloomberg financial news company today, Balls said the coalition needed to "reinstate vital investments now which support jobs and recovery".

The Labour leadership candidate identified the September school leaver's guarantee, the youth job's guarantee and the Building Schools for the Future programme as areas that need urgent reinvestment following chancellor George Osborne's cuts.

"By far the biggest influence on deficit reduction and the balance between taxation and spending is economic growth and the number of taxpayers in jobs paying their fair share," Balls said. "That is why the priority this year and next must be growth and jobs – the coalition should act quickly and aggressively to reverse George Osbourne’s cuts in support for the economy."

He added that the impact of immediate cuts to public spending on jobs had "not yet fed through".

"While it is one thing for the public to support deficit reduction when they are told that it will come from cutting ‘waste’ in public spending, it is quite another when the cuts mean local school building projects stopped, or a new local play facility cancelled", he said.

Balls argued the coalition government was using the budget deficit as an excuse for introducing the big society agenda for "ideological reasons: to shrink the state and leave the vulnerable relying on charity".