U.K. likely entering recession: Brown

The economic downturn in the United Kingdom will probably lead to a recession, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday.

Speaking to lawmakers in the British House of Commons, Brown said the British economy was likely to follow the global downturn into a recession.

Conservative party Leader David Cameron said Brown must shoulder some blame for Britain's downturn.

"He claimed the credit in the boom, why won't he take responsibility in the bust?" Cameron said.

Brown's prediction follows similar warnings that were issued by the Bank of England governor Mervyn King on Tuesday.

"Taken together, the combination of a squeeze on real take-home pay and a decline in the availability of credit poses the risk of a sharp and prolonged slowdown in domestic demand. Indeed, it now seems likely that the U.K. economy is entering a recession," King said.

The economic outlook for the country and the world is "very uncertain," he added.

Accounting firm Ernst & Young published a report Monday claiming Britain has been in a recession since July and predicted the country would not see economic growth again until 2010.

Britain's Office for National Statistics is expected to report on Friday that the economy shrank for the first time since 1992 during the July-September quarter.

Two consecutive quarters of negative growth are the usual definition of a recession.

With files from the Associated Press